Glen Bonin says he is “the kind of guy who learns the hard way.” And he’s not kidding . But there are some things that you shouldn’t have to learn the hard way, or any way. Some things, you should just know. One of those things is this: don’t try to drag an alligator across the road.
But that’s what Bonin and two of his buddies did, or tried to do, when they found an 11-foot gator crossing Prater Road in Sulphur, Louisiana recently. Alligators are slow-walking creatures and sometimes they don’t move at all. And that’s exactly what this scaly fellow in the road was doing. Nothing.
Bonin and his friends were trying to drive down the road themselves, so they thought, “Hey, here’s a good idea. Let’s get out of the car and move the alligator ourselves!”
So that’s what they did — though Bonin later acknowledged that their decision-making process was aided by the ingestion of what was surely a reasonable and moderate amount of alcoholic beverage.
Liquid courage or no liquid courage, the young man’s adventure in alligator relocation went about as well as could be expected. The entire unfortunate episode was captured on video, which is viewable above. Be warned, there are some graphic images in the video.
The guys, Bonin said, “took our shirts off, threw it on his face,” that “his” being the 11-foot alligator’s, “and we were going to come from behind it and jump on it… in the process of doing that, it spun around and grabbed my hand seconds before we jumped on it.”
And then what happened? Want to guess? Any takers? We’ll let Bonin tell you himself.
“In the process of doing that, it spun around and grabbed my hand seconds before we jumped on it,” Bonin said. “It felt like someone was pulling my arm out. I thought I was about to lose something. It felt like it lasted forever.”
But Bonin was one of the lucky ones . The 80 stitches he required in his arm and hand were a mere scratch compared to many victims of alligator bites. From 2000-2010 13 people died from alligator attacks in the United States, compared to only nine who were killed by shark attacks .
Bonin says he is now more ready to take the advice of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife an Fisheries, which is basically, if you see an alligator in the road, or anywhere an alligator shouldn’t be, do not try to move it. In fact, just leave it alone. Call the authorities and let them take care of any alligator issues.
“Hopefully with therapy I’ll be able to straighten out my ring finger,” said Glen Bonin, “and pinky a little bit.”
