It seems to have been the summer for wild animal attacks around our nation, and that should come as no great surprise, actually, because we continue to encroach on wildlife habitat.
Usually, if we disturb a deer or a coyote, we don’t have a lot to fear.
They are most interested in getting away from us.
But there are other confrontations that don’t end well.
For example, this week, Margaret Webb, 90, taking a walk near her southwest Florida home when an eight-foot-long alligator grabbed her leg. Doctors later had to amputate it.
Fortunately for the woman, Dwyane Daniels was close at hand and he was armed. He shot at it and drove it off.
It’s been suggested the gator was trying to drag Webb into the water for a meal.
AT least two people have been killed by grizzlies in Yellowstone Park this summer and in Minnesota a man encountered a black bear, only to get sniffed, instead of attacked.
Brooke Collins punched out a black bear in Juneau, Ala. She was protecting her dachshund, Fudge.
She didn’t know if bears ate fudge, but she wasn’t about to take a chance.
Whether it’s bears or alligators, these animals don’t know they are impeding on our recreation — not to mention our lives.
They are just acting as they were created to act.
We are the ones who will need to adapt, if we want our kids and grandkids to continue to enjoy them being in the wild.
Sure, it’s tragic when someone is hurt or, worse yet, killed, but if we insist on living where these wild predators live, this is going to happen.
— Chuck Smith