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Humans who feed wild alligators are courting disaster. That's something airboat tour guide Wallace Weatherholt has learned the hard way:
In June Captain Wallace Weatherholt, 63, who works at Captain Doug's Small Airport Tours, was out with six tourists when the attack occurred.
The Indiana family onboard said that Weatherholt held a fish out above the water's surface just before a gator leapt up and bit off his hand.
Weatherholt was able to drive himself back to the docks. Meanwhile wildlife officers tracked down the gator and killed it before retrieving the captain's hand from its stomach.
However doctors were unable to reattach Weatherholt's lost limb.
Feeding gators is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida. Weatherholt was held in Collier County Jail on $1,000 bond but has since posted out.
Israel DuPont of http://www.crocodopolis.net offers some
safety tips for folks encountering alligators in the wild, but the reality of the matter is, leave the wild animals alone!
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