An alligator eats a marshmallow during a 2007 sting operation to stop people from feeding animals during airboat tours. (©AP Photo/J. Pat Carter)

Boat captain in Florida gives gator a hand (literally)

6/13/2012

Florida airboat captain Wallace Weatherholt got his hand bitten off by an alligator yesterday afternoon. As if that's not bad enough, the Florida Fish and Wildlife agency says he could face a misdemeanor charge and prison time for illegally feeding the reptile (with fish, not with, um, his hand). One of the passengers on Weatherholt's boat said he gave the gator two small snacks and "lost his hand when he was patting the water, trying to get the gator to come up." Critics of the attention-grabbing stunt say that Weatherholt should lose his job, too, because feeding the gators can make them "more aggressively drawn to humans."

most recent

Should the captain face criminal charges?