Gator bites Don Goodman\'s arm off

trinitywolf · #1 (**permalink**) 09-25-2002, 03:38 AM

I know that this article is posted on the front page, but I think that it warrents a bit of discussion as well. If you haven't had a chance to read the article do that.
What I don't understand about the whole situation is why the gator had to be destroyed? Was it only to retreive the arm? If so, why did they think that they would be able to reattach it? It [B]was[\B] in the stomach of an animal. Also, what if they shot the wrong gator?! The whole thing just seems wrong to me. If they could have saved the arm I might have understood, but the chance of that could not have been over 5%. Could it?
I wish Mr. Goodman a speedy recovery, but I still think it was horrible to kill the gator.
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storm · #2 (**permalink**) 09-25-2002, 03:54 AM

I agree it was horrible, but i can't really say that i blame him for his actions. If you think about it, if you just saw a close friend and co-worker staggering towards you with blood flowing from what was left of his arm, and you had a gun, it would quickly cross your mind to go looking for whatever did that to him. Was it the right thing to do? I don't think so. Can we blame him for being caught up in the heat and horror of the moment? I know i can't. It's sad, but such visceral reactions are a part of human nature.
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bensnacks · #3 (**permalink**) 09-25-2002, 04:41 AM

I feel sorry for the bloke but, who goes wandering about
in a pond in which you know there are 11ft gators , while
they are not visible?? [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

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JC86 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-26-2002, 05:23 AM

This happened in town here, was on the front page of the newspaper. If you don't know, he was taken to Shands hospital here at the University of Florida, it's huge and they have some of the best surgeons in the country. If they had been able to get the arm out of the stomach about a half an hour earlier it would have been able to be reattatched.

They shot at the gator right when it happened but missed. The killing of it happened about an hour afterwards, there was still a possibility.

Anytime a gator attacks a human it has to be destroyed. That's how stuff is done here in Florida. It's not like we're short of gators anyways. They showed a pic of the gator on the front page of the newspaper (dead). It was massive, the head was lots larger than the torso of the guy dragging it. Biggest gator I've ever seen, and I"ve lived in Florida all of my life.

If there was a chance to get the arm back on then it was worth killing the gator. I'm sorry, but if you have to choose between an animal and a human's arm, I've gotta side with the human.

The guy who lost his arm was sad that the gator was destroyed and didn't want it, but he understood why.

I want to reiterate. It was not the coworker that killed the gator. It was the wildlife officers an hour later. He shot at it but it got away.

~Scott
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