Injured Gator Put Down After Snarling Traffic On Bird Road
SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBSMiami) – Only in South Florida.
Miami-Dade police were forced to close one lane of Bird Road near SW 144th Avenue in the southwestern part of the county after an injured alligator wandered into an eastbound lane and simply couldn't move any further.
"I saw the helicopter on my way here and I just figured, there's something wrong," said Michele Sanjurjo, a teacher at nearby Pinecrest Prep Academy.
"We're all excited because there's a gator in the street," exclaimed teacher Elena Zamoa.
Not everyone was excited. "When I found out it was an alligator, I was kind of scared," said Sanjurjo. She was concerned about the students who walk to school just steps from where the injured gator was spotted.
"It's really exciting because the kids get to see something neat on their way to school so it makes their morning a little bit better you know," said Lourdes Hernandez, a student's mother.
"I thought it was so big that it could bite people," said 1st grader Dariana Fustes.
Experts believe Tuesday's heavy rain brought the gator out of the water of a nearby canal.
The gator, about 5-feet long, had been hit by a car and was having trouble making it back across the road and into the canal.
The gator had a large open wound just above its rear left leg. Police officers parked a cruiser in the road near the gator so it wouldn't get hit by any additional vehicles.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived around 8:30 a.m. and safely moved the gator from the road into a pick-up truck.
It was turned over to Pesky Critters who said it had to be euthanized due to the extent of its injuries.
