Florida airboat captain charged with feeding the alligator that bit off his hand

[Botany]

Source: AP

EVERGLADES CITY, Fla. — A Florida airboat captain whose hand was bitten off by a 2.7-metre
alligator was arrested Friday and now faces charges of feeding the animal.

Collier County Jail records show 63-year-old Wallace Weatherholt was charged Friday with unlawful
feeding of an alligator and later posted $1,000 bond. His next court date is Aug. 22.

If convicted, Weatherbolt, who works for Captain Doug’s Everglades Tours in Everglades City, could
face up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Weatherholt was attacked on June 12 as he was giving an Indiana family a tour of the Everglades.
The family said Weatherholt hung a fish over the side of the boat and had his left hand at the water’s
surface when the alligator attacked.

Read more: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/29/florida-airboat-captain-charged-with-feeding-the-alligator-that-bit-off-his-hand/

---

Wallace Weatherholt

[rfranklin]

1. As the signs say in the zoo: Don't Pet the Animals...

What a freaking dimwit.

[Po_d Mainiac]

22. Sign shoulda said "no more hand outs" n/t

Last edited Mon Jul 30, 2012, 10:13 PM - Edit history (1)

[randome]

23. LOL!

[d_r]

41. always looking for hand out

great joke

[Ezlivin]

2. Isn't that redundant?

N/T

[petronius]

18. Since he was holding a chunk of food in the hand, it really ought to be two counts

of illegally feeding the wildlife...

[Ezlivin]

52. Precisely

N/T

[tawadi]

3. Well that's a tour that Indiana family will never forget

[petronius]

7. It's a good thing he didn't make it an 'audience-participation' tour

I can imagine it too easily: "Here, just hold the chicken chunk over the water. It's perfectly safe!"

[jberryhill]

4. "Left arm gone clean up to de elbow!"

[lib2DaBone]

35. Make note to self:.... Illegal to feed body parts to Alligators.....

Just call me "Lefty".

Brought to you by the caring and compassionate State of Florida.

If only pRick Scott would visit an Alligator farm.

[L0oniX]

5. WTF ...loosing his hand was punishment enough...

and now they are going waste the courts time (Florida tax money) on this bull shit? WTF

[jberryhill]

8. So, if I am paralyzed in a car crash fleeing a bank robbery

It's all good, then.

[L0oniX]

24. Were they offering food to the bankers? Reframe much?

[jberryhill]

28. He was injured during the course of committing a crime

I feel badly for the guy losing a hand, but that is one of the reasons it is a crime.

I mean, we could work up a system where, for each offense, we set an "injury forgiveness level".

Like, if you are ten miles over the speed limit, are involved in a collision and suffer a broken arm, then you get credit toward the speeding ticket.

But we don't do that. Unfortunately, there is reliable evidence that he was feeding an alligator, which is a federal offense.

[Hells Liberal]

34. Amen, jberryhill

It's also a state law here in Florida. I can't count the times I've seen idiots feeding gators at the parks near my home.

I say we need to make an example of this guy.

[berni_mccoy]

10. I agree. I think the punishment here is the natural consequence of his action.

The law is there to prevent someone from losing a limb. It didn't work in his case.

[jberryhill]

29. The law is there for several reasons

Like feeding bears in national parks, the primary reason for the law is not to condition the animals to associate humans with free meals. This type of behavioral conditioning increases the odds that *someone else* if not you, is going to end up being confronted by a wild animal.

[Hells Liberal]

38. My boss' father was killed by a gator

He was just taking his afternoon walk near his house when it happened. He was probably paying the cost for some bonehead's cheap amusement.

[Hells Liberal]

33. I'm a Floridian and I don't think this is a waste of money or the court's time!

Feeding gators makes them associate humans with food and causes them to lose their fear of humans. It causes gators to become a hazard to humans and domestic animals, particularly dogs.

I live near the Hillsborough River and I've nearly come to blows on several occasions with idiots who think it's cute to throw picnic leftovers to the gators. They don't know or care that those gators could become nuisances as a result.

Unfortunately, we don't have enough wildlife officers or local cops to stop it. As far as I'm concerned, they need to make a hell of an example of this guy.

[snooper2]

55. He still has one hand to reach into his wallet with

[janlyn]

6. fines

People like this should not breed!!!

I imagine him saying" hey ya'll watch this" right before he loses his hand.

[bluedigger]

9. He's already lost his hand.

And you want them to take more of his body?

[Hells Liberal]

37. I want him prosecuted

and fined and sentenced to the maximum time in jail under the law.

Feeding gators is illegal and it turns them into hazards because it causes them to lose their fear of humans. Living near the Hillsborough River, I see it happen too often when picnickers decide to throw their leftovers to those cute little baby gators. Those boneheads don't realize those little gators grow to be big ones which can hurt or kill humans.

If it'll stop just a few boneheads to reconsider feeding gators, then I say "Make an example of him!"

[bluedigger]

42. I'm okay with prosecuting him, actually, for public awareness.

But I don't think punishing him is really necessary. The gator already did that.

[nolabear]

11. Oh hell he'll be a celebrity.

I'm sure it was an awful experience but people do fool things with those gators all the time just like they do with all kinds of wildlife, and then are shocked when it actually turned out to be wild. He'll be telling that story for the rest of his life and will probably get a bump in tourist trade. The bad news is that the alligator might be trapped and killed for being an alligator while he's just fined for being a fool.

[Hells Liberal]

36. The gator was already killed

so they could find the guy's hand and attempt to reattach it.

We should be thankful that the only thing this gator did was eat the guy's hand. When gators get used to people feeding them, they lose their fear of people and become a hazard to humans and domestic animals. That gator could just as easily have grown up to kill a kid fishing from the shore or a golfer who got too close to a water trap.

[randome]

12. "The moving hand feeds and once fed moves on."

Or something like that.

[exboyfil]

13. It seems the same charge would apply

if he was holding a chicken or just happened to have his hand dangling over the water. In both cases he is feeding the alligators (sarcasm).

[FlaGranny]

48. Dangling the hand -

Picture a family of tourists renting a boat and one of them dipping or splashing their hand in the water and the resident alligator has been trained that humans mean free food.

[Downwinder]

14. So now we have Capt. Hook.

Anybody seen Peter around.

[demosincebirth]

15. That's odd. You can own an arsenal but the law says you can't feed and alligator.

What's wrong here?

[randome]

17. What if the alligator IS your arsenal? I bet the constitution doesn't cover that.

[demosincebirth]

19. Is that some form of double talk?

[randome]

20. Not absolutely maybe not.

[demosincebirth]

25. In that case, I don't know what the hell you're talking about Nt

[msanthrope]

31. You'd have to ask Scalia if the right to keep and bear alligators was in the

Constitution.

Not just purses, shoes, or belts, but the whole thing.....like a rocket-launcher. I guess if you can bear a rocket launcher, you can bear an alligator, right? At least until a certain size....

[NickB79]

32. It only covers bears, not alligators. NT

[christx30]

53. The constitution

says this guy could have his other arm removed and replaced with the arms of a bear. He has the right to it.

[randome]

56. You guys are too good.

[demosincebirth]

58. I checked and I couldn't find it in there.

[snooper2]

57. You get a 3.7 out of 10 for the effort to introduce guns into this thread-

You COULD have been a little more cavalier about it. Maybe by posting something snarky to the OP or something like the alligator should have just eaten him and let the sub-thread delve into gunobssesionalistporny, but maybe next time!

[demosincebirth]

59. I would give myself a 10, for facetiousness

[The Stranger]

16. And, of course, they had to track down the animal and kill it.

Can they get this piece of shit for anything worse than 60 days in jail?

[demosincebirth]

27. Of course they have to kill it. It bit a guys hand off who was waving a side of chicken at him.

[Kalidurga]

21. Someone should have told the gater that it's not polite to bit the hand that feeds it.

Of course, the hand was probably a tasty snack too.

[HockeyMom]

26. Good

He deserves what he got: from the gator, and the law. I also live in Collier County about 10 miles from the Everglades.

[Hells Liberal]

39. Amen, HockeyMom

I live less than a mile from the Hillsborough River in Tampa. I see boneheads feeding gators all the time because they think those young gators are so cute!

Of course, those little gators grow to be big gators which attack kids fishing from shore, people walking their dogs and golfers who play too close to a water trap.

I can't believe the people who think this guy suffered enough! We need to make an example of him so maybe others will think twice before feeding gators.

[Thor_MN]

30. Apparently no one told the alligator that we don't do Sharia law...

[1monster]

40. I'd say that he's already been charged, tried, found guilty, and sentence executed by the

Court of Alligator Law.

But then, Florida is a different governmental body, so it can field its own charges, and the Feds could probably weigh in too... and it wouldn't, at least technically, be double or triple jeopardy.

[obamanut2012]

43. good

[Monk06]

44. Man to alligator, "Would you like a hand with that?"

[sofa king]

45. Let this be a warning to all other alligators.

Do not accept human hands as food, even if offered to you.

[lonestarnot]

46. Main course and dessert in one bite. mmmm. mmmm mmm. Stupid.

[JanMichael]

47. Eat more ChIkin

What a dope

[Ash_F]

49. Maybe the practice of feeding gators is what caused this tragedy

...just one month later.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/07/10/alligator-bites-off-teens-forearm-in-attack-during-swim-in-u-s-river/

Apparently a lot of river guides have taken to feeding them.

[JNelson6563]

50. Where I come from they call this

A special kind of stupid.

Julie

[Skinner]

51. Seems like a good way to get the word out...

...that you don't feed the alligators.

Here we are talking about it.

[William769]

54. Don't be to hard on this guy.

The Federal Government pretty much made this place a Ghost town back in the 80's and they have never recovered.

[pitohui]

60. yes he made a mistake he suffered enough

christ people

most gators are not aggressive, he was trying to make a living and he played the odds

losing his hand and his living isn't enough for you?

[sofa king]

61. No, in fact it isn't.

He broke the law, apparently made his living breaking the law, and disturbed the natural order of things which led to the death of an awe-inspiring creature which might otherwise have lived out its life without ever seeing a human.

So fuck that guy. His personal loss absolves him not at all from the laws he broke and the damage he caused. Unlike the alligator, that guy could have moved somewhere else or found another line of work. Instead, he exploited the environment for personal gain, and he has not even begun to pay the legal price for that yet.