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Walk In Park Turns Deadly For Dog

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By NEIL JOHNSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2008

TAMPA - It may be several days before a trapper can snare an alligator that killed a dog at Al Lopez Park on Monday.

Trapper Julie Harder, hired by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was not able to snare the gator Monday but will return in a few days, she said.

The animal, estimated at 5 feet or longer, isn't eager to take bait now. And bad weather today was expected to keep the creature in its den, Harder said.

The day after the alligator grabbed Freddy, a 5-year-old, 19-pound cairn terrier, the dog's owner, Sarah Frey, was still dealing with the loss.

"I really miss him. Yesterday I was kind of a mess," Frey, 37, said Tuesday. "I never had a dog. He was my first and I had him since he was a puppy."
Frey and Freddy had just finished walking a lap around the urban park, on Himes Avenue south of Hillsborough Avenue, when she let him free of his leash.

The dog ran toward the southernmost of the two ponds at the park, and Frey lost sight of him.

The asphalt walking path is only a few yards from the water. "He was not that far ahead of me. He's usually pretty good. He just kind of disappeared," she said.

"Then I heard people yelling."

Witnesses told the Tampa Parks and Recreation Department that the dog was barking at the alligator, then jumped into the pond, said Cathie Schanz, operations manager for the department.

Frey, a salon company marketing manager, has trouble believing Freddy was barking.

"I would have heard him. I wasn't that far away," she said.

She said she had no idea the park held such a danger for her dog, even with signs warning that alligators were present.
Frey said she moved to Tampa from Ohio 18 months ago. "I've never even seen an alligator. If someone said, 'Beware of alligators,' I'd say, 'What?' I'm not careless," she said.

"I was in the middle of a city park."

But alligators present a serious threat to any dog near the water, Harder said. They have been known to grab dogs even if they are on a leash.

Though he didn't see the alligator snatch Freddy, Emilio Lefler reached the pond moments later.

"The alligator had a dog in its mouth," he said. "You could see fur out the side of its mouth."

Lefler, 78, said he regularly saw the alligator either in the water a few yards from the asphalt path or sunning itself on a bank.

"That was a big alligator. When they say it was 8 feet, it was every bit of 8 feet," he said.

Osie Swanson of Tampa, who walks by the pond every weekday, also knew of the alligator, but didn't worry about it.

"I figure if I didn't bother the gator, it won't bother me," she said.

No one should be surprised to find a large alligator in an urban setting such as Al Lopez Park, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "Every body of fresh water in Florida either has or will have an alligator," he said.

Schanz said the parks department placed orange cones in the area where the alligator stayed, but the cones were gone Tuesday.

Encounters between pets or people and alligators could be more common in the coming months, Harder said. They are emerging from winter dormancy and will be wandering in search of mates.

The reptiles will be more active this month through October. "The first thing on their minds is mating, so they'll be out," Harder said.

Reporter Neil Johnson can be reached at (813) 259-7731 or njohnson@tampatrib.com.

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