Overview
- Video released by the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office shows the Dec. 2 removal of a 14-foot, roughly 600-pound alligator that was blocking a neighborhood road.
- An eight-person team — seven deputies working with a licensed trapper — secured the animal’s jaws and lifted it into the bed of a pickup truck.
- The sheriff’s office said the alligator had been dormant on a resident’s doorstep earlier before moving into the street.
- During the lift, the gator’s tail struck a deputy, as seen in the video, before the team completed the loading.
- Officials said the animal was released to a local alligator farm, aligning with Florida Fish and Wildlife guidance under the state’s Nuisance Alligator Program.