ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Police in St. Petersburg, Florida helped a trapper remove a 10-foot-long alligator from a neighborhood on Thursday.
St. Petersburg Police Department on Facebook said officers helped remove an alligator that was 10 feet long and weighed about 400 pounds.
“Neighbors tell us it was getting too close to kids playing in the area and wasn’t afraid of people,” police said on Facebook. “Hard to believe alligator trapping used to be part of the police academy requirements not too long ago!!”
Police shared some photos on Facebook showing the officers standing a few feet away with a pole as the trapper went up to the alligator from behind, according to WTSP.
An alligator is reportedly considered a nuisance if it’s at least four feet long and poses a threat to people, pets, or property, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said, according to the news outlet.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission uses contracted alligator trappers in a similar instance to help remove them if they are posting a public safety threat, according to WTSP. It’s a program called Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program or SNAP. Instead of relocating the alligators, they get removed because the alligators can try to go back to where they were captured. If you relocate them to remote areas, it could end up disturbing the alligator populations that are already there.
Florida has around 1.3 million alligators around the state, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said, according to the news outlet.
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