Sanibel revamps its gator policy
Some say new rules should be tougher
By KEVIN LOLLAR,
klollar@news-press.com
Published by
news-press.com on August 4,
2004
The Sanibel City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new
nuisance alligator policy.
Among other things, the new policy, which goes into effect
immediately, allows Sanibel to bring in a contract trapper to kill an
alligator between 4 and 8 feet long if the animal is making people
feel unsafe.
Under the old policy, an alligator smaller than 8 feet long had to
behave aggressively or show signs of having been fed before it could
be destroyed.
Some attending the council meeting said the new policy doesn’t go far
enough to protect residents and visitors.
Rob Loflin, Sanibel’s natural resources director, explained the new
policy to the council and added a caveat.
“Even if we implement this, everybody should be aware that in the
southeastern United States, you need to be careful around freshwater
bodies,” he said. “Nobody should have a false sense of security that
they’re safe around freshwater bodies.”
The vote came 13 days after Sanibel landscaper Janie Melsek, 54,
was attacked by an 11-foot, 9-inch alligator as she worked beside a
pond. Melsek died two days later.
Melsek’s was the third alligator attack and second fatal attack on
Sanibel in the past three years. Robert Steele, 81, was killed near a
canal by a 10-foot, 9-inch alligator Sept. 11, 2001; Jane Keefer, 74,
was attacked April 21 by a 9-foot, 7-inch alligator near a lake behind
her home. She recovered from her injuries.
Three days after Keefer was attacked, the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission publicly questioned Sanibel’s
alligator-friendly policy.
Tuesday, FWC spokesman Gary Morse said the state favored Sanibel’s
new policy, which is based on the state’s nuisance alligator
procedures.
“People can coexist with alligators — notice I don’t say ‘in
harmony’; I say ‘coexist,’ ” Morse said. “We have literally tens of
thousands of people a day swimming, water skiing, and wade fishing in
freshwater lakes and rivers without incident.
“The only way we can co-exist with alligators is to remove those
that indicate they are becoming a danger to people.”
According to Sanibel’s new policy, the city will:
• Continue to destroy all aggressive alligators of any length.
• Adjust the definition of nuisance alligator to include:
• Large alligators (in excess of 4 feet) in residential and
commercial areas,
• Alligators that make residents feel unsafe, when they are close
to children.
• Large alligators, in high pedestrian traffic and public
locations.
• Relocate only non-nuisance alligators up to 4 feet in length.
• When someone makes a complaint about an alligator, the city will
request a state trapper remove it if it is more than 4 feet long.
• Request a permit to remove nuisance alligators greater than 4
feet long from residential, commercial and public lakes and ponds.
The size of alligators that may be destroyed was a major issue.
Because the old policy specified that an alligator was considered a
nuisance only if it behaved aggressively or showed signs of having
been fed, city officials responding to complaints had to decide
whether an alligator really was a nuisance.
If it was simply sunning itself in someone’s back yard and was less
than 8 feet long, officials had the option of moving it somewhere on
the island.
According to traditional wisdom, all alligators, regardless of
size, are afraid of people unless people feed them; but the fact is
that an alligator larger than 9 feet can see humans as prey.
Relocating a 7-foot alligator might allow it to grow into a
dangerous 10-foot predator.
“For 21 years, I’ve been teaching people that if an alligator
hasn’t been fed or isn’t protecting its babies, it’s OK,” said Kristy
Anders, education director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation
Foundation, who was not speaking in behalf of SCCF. “But it’s not OK.
These are prehistoric animals with instincts programmed for 200
million years.”
Of course, alligators fed by humans are dangerous, and feeding them
is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida, punishable by up to $500 in
fines and 60 days in jail.
Unfortunately, Anders said, people on Sanibel are reluctant to
report fed alligators or people who feed them.
“We’ve done too good a job of educating people: We’ve taught them
to coexist with wildlife,” she said. “In the desire to create a
peaceful coexistence, people have failed to pick up a phone if an
alligator is too close or has been fed.
“My new educational message is pick up a phone and rat on that
gator. If you don’t want to tell on the people, at least tell on the
alligator.”
More than a dozen people addressed the council during Monday’s
public comment period — all were in favor of getting tougher on
alligators.
“There’s one animal here that I personally view with dread,” said
Claudia Burns, who described herself as an avid animal rights
activist, a bird-nerd and a tree hugger. “I do everything I can to
avoid coming anywhere near that animal. It is, of course, the
alligator, which I view as dangerous regardless of size.
“This latest attack may be telling us something.”
Melsek’s brother, Lee Melsek, an investigative reporter for The
News-Press, questioned laws that protect dangerous predators; since
1971, alligators have killed 14 people in Florida.
He also questioned the distinction between nuisance and
non-nuisance alligators.
“We learned as children that alligators kill people and have been
since the beginning of time,” said Lee Melsek, who grew up on Fort
Myers Beach. “The problem with alligators as a ‘nuisance’ is that
they’re more than a nuisance. They’re a threat to human life.
“The alligator that killed Janie was only a nuisance after it
killed her.”
After the meeting, Sanibel landscaper Rusty Farst, who learned his
trade from Janie Melsek 20 years ago, said the new policy doesn’t go
far enough:
“Sanibel has become a fenceless zoo of defenseless residents,” he
said. “We need to harvest all alligators over 4 feet.”
Lee Melsek had a more extreme idea:
“I don’t think there should be any alligators in the city of
Sanibel,” he said. “Letting alligators live in Sanibel is like letting
lions and tigers walk down Michigan Avenue in Chicago.”
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