Later Alligator: Trappers Remove Gator Strolling Through Resident’s Yard

by Sharon Aron Baron May 22, 2020

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By: Sharon Aron Baron

It wasn’t Elena Avello’s first encounter with an alligator in her Watercrest home in Parkland.

In 2017, Parkland Talk covered the story after she spotted a gator nestled at her front door. The article brought a barrage of coverage from local news stations.

Gator Boys with the alligator. Photo by Elena Avello.

Avello probably wasn’t expecting an encore performance; after all, alligators don’t typically stroll around Parkland neighborhoods.

That is, except hers.

On Thursday, another gator crawled over to her property. First spotted by her next-door neighbors, the sounds of it banging on the fence awakened them at 5 a.m.

Around 6:30 a.m. they called the police, and the community’s management company called the trapper or shortly after.

Her first gator was a six-footer; this one was seven feet — but skinny.

Gator Boys, an alligator rescue team who work out of Everglades Holiday Park, said it might have been sick. They trapped it, and Avello said they will take it back to a farm in Okeechobee for rehabilitation.

“The first gator was taken out by FWC,” she said. “It’s my understanding they euthanize them. But the Gator Boys do not. They take them to their farm for rehab. At least that’s what he told me,” said Avello.

A native of South Florida, Avello has been living in the upscale Parkland community on the northwestern part of Broward County for over five years and understands that alligators were here well before humans.

“We are in the gators’ habitat,” said Avello. “They were here long before us. But with that said, I wouldn’t want a gator to hurt a human or a pet.”

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