|
Woman dies after alligator attack
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-07-27 08:45
A professional landscaper died Friday after being mauled by a 12-foot
alligator that dragged her into a pond and nearly tore off one of her arms.
Police shot and killed this 12-foot alligator
Wednesday after it fatally attacked a Florida landscaper.
|
Janie Melsek, 54, was attacked Wednesday by the alligator as she worked on
landscaping behind a home on Sanibel Island, just off the Florida coast in the
Gulf of Mexico.
After the animal pulled her into the water, a neighbor and police officers
engaged in a fierce "tug-of-war" to pull her from the reptile's jaws.
Melsek died in surgery at Lee Memorial Hospital to treat an infection caused
by the reptile's vicious bites. Doctors said her body simply shut down in
response to the infection.
"My mom showed more courage than fear, and I could not be more proud of her,"
said Melsek's daughter, Joy Williams, 29. "She's just absolutely amazed me and
our whole community with the fight she put up."
Police killed the 457-pound alligator, which required six men to lift it to
shore.
She was the 14th person known to have been fatally attacked by a Florida
alligator since record keeping began.
Florida's alligator population had once dwindled to the point that the
reptile was placed on the federal list of endangered species.
They have since rebounded to perhaps a million or more across the entire
state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They
can now be killed during seasonal hunts conducted by the commission.
|
 | | Liu Xiaoqing to release the first album
| | |  | | | 2004 Miss Intercontinental crowned | | |  | | | Swimwear for Athens Olympics debuts | | |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top Life
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
