Why are we killing gators for being gators?

Every so often, I feel compelled to remind everyone why we live or visit here. In a phrase - natural beauty.

Alligators are part of that.

My soul sickens every time I see a video showing an alligator being dragged to his death from his lagoon for simply behaving like an alligator is supposed to; like alligators have behaved since before dinosaurs roamed the earth, and certainly longer than we have been around. That means they sometimes make a meal of our dogs.

This is called Mother Nature at work. When we allow our pets to run loose, they go from being part of our domestic realm to being a rung in a hierarchy known commonly as the food chain.

Nature doesn’t punish those at the top of the ladder.

But we do.

We can also be rather cavalier in how we view the deaths of these magnificent reptiles.

“As you can see, he didn’t go willingly,” someone wrote on Facebook as viewers watched one such creature fighting desperately for his life. That comment was followed by the even more abominable sign-off, “See you later, alligator.”

Really? Is this what we’ve come to? Watching the death of a beautiful beast with the blood lust of a Roman mob watching the gladiator games?

How sad for all of us.

Joe Maffo, long-time certified animal handler, owner of Critter Management, and fellow tree-hugger, agrees that there’s something inherently wrong with the sentencing to death of local wildlife who act normally and instinctually.

So here’s some advice from the guy who knows:

“Mating season is with us early this year. Be careful, because male alligators are now ‘strolling’ for females,” Maffo said. “This is the only time of year where they will often leave their own territory, so you may see larger alligators in lagoons and places where you don’t normally see them.”

This next one is important so pay attention:

Keep your pets on a leash. It’s a statewide law. And carry a flashlight at night. No need to be afraid, because the gators don’t want to eat you. They are looking for a mate.

Leave them alone and don’t feed them.

I don’t know how much clearer Joe and I can be, folks.

Now lest you think I’m insensitive about dogs, here’s my own horror story.

Right after moving back home to Hilton Head, my dear little angel, Sam the beagle, got loose, and swam joyfully across a lagoon - in front of my eyes - right between two alligators. Sam and I had swam together in lakes up in New England, and he assumed I would jump in after him, like before. The alligators did not make a move toward him. They actually appeared stunned that something so bite-sized would do something so stupid.

The image of Sam swimming between those two prehistoric dragons, is emblazoned into my brain, and still wakes me as a nightmare.

But, it never once occurred to me that if anything happened that day, an alligator should die.

It did occur to me that I was a lousy pet parent.

And maybe that’s the lesson.

This story was originally published April 28, 2016 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Why are we killing gators for being gators?."