It all turned out well for a little Florida puppy.
His 74-year-old master managed to rescue him from the mouth of an alligator.
Florida - What Richard Wilbanks does looks casual, but he risks his life.
A video shows how the 74-year-old
pensioner
rescues
his
puppy
from the
jaws of
an
alligator
.
A
surveillance camera
recorded the action in the
backyard
pond at Wilbanks.
The
clip
spread rapidly on the
net
.
Dog owner: Alligator came shot out of the water
Wilbanks had worked with animal welfare organizations
all cameras installed on his property.
The cameras would mainly be watching bobcats and deer.
The
footage of
the incident was made in late October, but only recently surfaced,
Meredith Budd
, regional director of the
Florida Wildlife Federation
, told
ABC News.
"The video was shocking."
The
video does not
reveal
the circumstances under which the three-month-old
Calvalier King Charls Spaniel
entered the pond.
You can see the
74-year-old
owner of Gunner, the little puppy,
standing
nonchalantly with a cigarette in his mouth and up to his hips in the
water
- his hands firmly gripping the mouth of an alligator.
He tries with all his might
to open the reptile's
jaw
.
It seems almost effortless when Wilbanks succeeds in rescuing the small dog (* FR reported) from the alligator's throat.
Florida man saves puppy from alligator!
#florida #puppy #alligator #rescue pic.twitter.com/M9m67GdamD
- JJ Thomas (@jjthomasradio) November 21, 2020
"We were just walking by the pond and the
alligator
came out of the water like a rocket," Wilbanks told
CNN
.
“I never thought an alligator could be that fast.
I just automatically jumped into the water. "
Rescue of puppies: hands of alligator "chewed up"
Even if it looked relatively easy: Opening the alligator's mouth was "extremely difficult", emphasized Wilbanks.
His hands were downright "chewed up".
During a subsequent
visit
to the
doctor
, he had a tetanus vaccination *.
Puppy Gunner
was after the dramatic incident
been taken to a vet.
In the struggle for
survival
, the alligator's teeth tore a
stab wound
in its stomach.
The little
dog
would be fine now.
"Dogs are like kids to us, so there was no second thought at all," Wilbanks told
WINK News
.
From now on,
Wilbanks wants to
keep
his
dog
on a leash. “Our pets are like family for us.” * FR.de
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