A Florida woman saved her puppy from the jaws of a 5-foot alligator by pounding the beast in the eye until it let go.
Danie Wright was walking 4-month-old Dax behind her home in Land O’ Lakes, about 20 miles north of Tampa, last week when the gator lunged from a mossy creek and clamped down on the pup’s collar.
“I heard a squeal, and I got pulled,” Wright, a Floridian of 20 years, told local CBS affiliate WTSP. “The alligator had him by his collar and dragged him, and I wasn’t gonna let go.”
She said she swung her fists until the reptile released Dax.
“I just punched him, punched and punched,” Wright said. “I punched him in the eye enough that he kind of let go … but his teeth dragged down my arm.”
Dax wasn’t hurt, but Wright suffered bite wounds and is now recovering, WTSP reported.
Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission later trapped the gator and removed it from the property.
“Just be careful with your dogs, you know these alligators are no joke,” Wright warned. “I mean, 15 feet, he came out to get him, and I didn’t see him.”
Florida averages about eight unprovoked alligator attacks on humans each year, one of which has been fatal in 2025, the FWC said. Attacks on pets are far more common.
In July, 27-year-old optometrist Amber Perren was mauled by an 8-foot gator while wading in the St. Lucie River, according to WPTV. She survived but required multiple surgeries.
And earlier this summer, 61-year-old Cynthia Diekema was killed while canoeing with her husband near Lake Kissimmee State Park when an 11-foot gator flipped their boat and dragged her under, according to an FWC report.
Wildlife officials estimate there are 1.3 million alligators across Florida, and recently launched a new public awareness campaign called “GatorWise” to remind residents and visitors that the predators can lurk in almost any body of water.
The FWC urges pet owners to keep animals on leashes and away from lakes, ponds and other bodies of water where gators may be hiding.
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