MIAMI — A pair of dogs proved to be a South Florida man’s best friends on Tuesday after they alerted him of a half-ton, 11-foot alligator in his farm’s backyard, local news outlets say.
Tim Nguyen, the owner of a farm located on Southwest 237th Avenue and 233rd Street, nervously called Miami-Dade police after he laid eyes on the gator, he told CBS Miami.
He said he had never seen anything like it in the six years he’s owned the property.
“I heard my dogs barking a lot," Nguyen told the news outlet. "I went to see what was going on, why they were barking a lot.”
It took Miami police and veteran trapper Todd Hardwick of Pesky Critters to place the 480-pound alligator into the back of Hardwick’s pickup truck, CBS added.
Hardwick has been capturing gators for 42 years and wants people to keep their distance and stay safe, especially while alligators mate and weather the season’s high temperatures.
“This is the time of year when you have to be aware of your surroundings. Any body of water can and will contain alligators at some time," Hardwick told the outlet.
FWC warns people to never try to feed alligators and only swim in designated swimming areas during the day.
The trapper also said the alligator will either be placed into captivity or harvested because if it were released into the wild, it would probably return to where it was last captured — Nguyen's farm.