Dog walks usually end with a plastic bag of poop, not a fistfight with a dinosaur. But in Florida, anything is possible.
Danie Wright, 53, was walking her four-month-old Shih Tzu, Dax, near a creek behind her Land O’Lakes home when a five-foot alligator shot out of the water and latched onto the puppy’s collar. “The next thing I heard was a squeak like my dog,” she told The New York Times. “I turned and looked, and an alligator had him.”
The gator pulled hard enough to drag both dog and owner into the water. Wright managed to toss Dax back to shore, but not before the reptile clamped its jaws on her arm. A former college rugby player, she knew the only option left was to fight. “I started punching, elbowing, kicking, and kneeing, and I was lucky enough to flip him over onto his back,” she said.
Wright told WTSP-TV she went straight for the eyes. “I just punched him, punched and punched,” she said. The gator loosened its grip long enough for her to rip her arm free and climb out of the creek, bloody and covered in moss. Dax was unhurt, though probably convinced that walks are canceled forever.
Florida Woman Punches Alligator to Save Her Puppy
Wildlife officers trapped the alligator later that day. In Florida, “nuisance” gators are typically killed once they’ve had direct contact with humans. Wright, meanwhile, escaped with puncture wounds and scratches but didn’t need stitches. “I was so lucky it was a small alligator,” she said.
Statistically, gator attacks are rare. State officials say Florida averages only eight serious, unprovoked bites a year. That’s not much comfort when one comes flying at you like a rocket out of a backyard swamp. Wright even filmed the animal still lurking outside her property hours after the fight—just to prove she hadn’t imagined it.
“If you live in Florida or anywhere there are gators, you have to keep your eye out 24/7,” she said.
Wright left the creek bleeding but victorious, another reminder that in Florida, even a dog walk can become a fight-or-flight drill.
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