A Florida dog died after a visit to a park.
Wildlife officials said Joshua Wells was attempting to follow his usual lunchtime regimen when he and his dog, Toby, were attacked by a gator.
Wells and Toby were at the J.R. Alford Greenway Trail, a widely known park in Tallahassee, when a 9-foot alligator snatched up the dog by the head and managed to carry it back into the water.
Wells said the dog couldn’t react because the incident happened so fast.
“Boom, the water just sort of exploded,” Wells told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, FOX 13 of Tampa Bay reported. “He never barked. He never saw it.”
“It took him down like it was nothing,” he added.
Wells told officials he tried to rescue the family dog by trying to grab the gator but quickly made him change his thought process.
“He said he soon realized that was not a good idea and let the alligator go,” the FWC report said.
Wildlife officials tracked down the alligator after the June 9 incident.
The gator measured 9 feet, 2 inches, according to FWC Officer Benjamin Johnson. A trapper found the dog’s body near where the alligator was located.
The dog wasn’t leashed. The wildlife agency recommends leashing pets near water.
