Airboaters in hot water over gators

[rick]

BY JENNIFER MOONEY PIEDRA
jmooney@MiamiHerald.com

Handmade signs hanging on palm trees at Everglades Holiday Park warn visitors: ``Do Not Feed The Alligators.''

Three of the park's employees recently violated those rules while guiding tourists on airboat rides, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

Airboat captains Alan Griffith, Richard Grzegorczak and Richard Gerretsen were arrested in June and charged with feeding alligators, a second-degree misdemeanor. Griffith, a longtime employee at the park, was also charged with ''molesting'' alligators after touching the animals.

Besides breaking the law, the captains were endangering themselves and others, commission spokesman Jorge Pino said.

''When people...

Full Story: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/205922.html

 

[bondsman]

i can understand the saftey reasons ,but to go as far to arrest them is just absurd.they could have gave them a steep fine and said next time jail.this is just my opinion.


and one more thing why couldn't the journalist just say tour guides in hot water,or boaters in hot water. now every yankee will think all airboaters are gator molestors.

 

[Rich Andrews]

Jerry Lord would had handled it another way..newbie wardens getting to know everyone.

 

[jpatter123]

I am sorry but that all is just crap. People been feeding those gators marshmallows for years. Its ok for a guy to call himself the crocodile hunter and go on TV and jump all over those animals chase them stick his finger up their butt but a guy who REALLY knows what hes doing like a lot of the tour guides cannot bring other people up close and personal to those gators to teach them a little sumtin sumtin. Funny how those gators that have been fed for 20 years haven't bitten anyone. Remember these guys aren't feeding gators on your local golf course for crimeny sakes!
Sorry this subject really touches a nerve I have lots of friends that have been fined even though they have been running those same tour boats since I was in diapers. And most of those gators are so far removed from people someone would have to parachute out of an airplane to land within reason of getting bitten by the now tamed hand fed gator. :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire: :angryfire:

 

[glades cat]

Remember, Holiday Park is in the limelight, as Broward County wants to take it over. Anything they can do to discredit current operations will put ammo in their guns when it comes time to make a "presentation" before the commission.
Maybe it's just me looking too far into it.

 

[GatorChaser]

It's against the Law. Just like the Bear incident It's against the law to get caught. If your gonna do this stuff in public then you deserve what happens.

 

[cont520]

the laws the law ,but concentrate a little more on the real problems in the world instead of some tour guides entertaining they re customers :evil: :evil:

 

[Sniper]

The more I hear about the things Game wardens do to people in the out doors the less I like them, they have no respect for other Law Enforcement officers so I can't expect them to have any respect for civilians, Game wardens that behave like this are an embarrassment to other officers that wear a badge :evil:

 

[jpatter123]

you know its funny Sniper I thought when the FWC became a standard organization across florida and game wardens no longer were from companies like Wackenhut it would get better. I know a few FWC personally and some are exceptional guys, but just like police officers some take their job very very very seriously. The sad part about it is very few of them know the laws as well as they should. Every time i have a tough question and pose it to a wildlife officer I rarely get an answer or if I do the next officer I talk to gives me a completely different one. In its infancy I had a FWC officer check my boat about 16 miles offshore 7 miles out of his jurisdiction. All this is just useless banter but I do know some like high profile cases such as this just like certain agencies love getting in the news about large drug busts.
They really aren't all bad or hard heads. Most of the ones you meet around Southwest Florida are very reasonable especially when it comes to fishing/boating related stuff. Shoot a deer out of season though and look out . The federal boys have been putting pressure on the tour boats for as long back as I can remember about them feeding gators. One of the bad parts about it is you can guarantee those guys lost their jobs. I think its a way of the tour boat operations to deny any/all responsibility so they don't get shut down or get fined themselves. Oh well we aren't gonna change anything here its just one of those things, tour boat operators will still be feeding gators and every couple of years they will send in an undercover agent bust a few guys, get a few headlines , rinse and repeat.