Mind-blowing moment Florida CHILD struggles with an alligator after it is caught on the highway
A bystander captured the wild moment a father and son teamed up to fight off a huge alligator on a Florida highway.
Travis Graves and his nine-year-old son, Travis Graves II, captured the 10-foot alligator in Jacksonville on Monday.
The father had impressively collared the creature and had his son help secure it so it could be transported, with the aim of teaching the boy how to one day catch them himself.
“Over the last few years, we started helping him catch the alligators instead of watching and learning when he was younger,” the father said. The Florida Times Union.
“He’s still a long way from being able to jump over the crocodiles, but we’re trying to make him as practical as possible to be safe.”
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was named after Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway called to move the alligator stuck in the road.
Travis Graves and his nine-year-old son Travis Graves II had a fight with a 10-foot alligator on April 1
The boy’s parents said everyone in their family catches alligators — in fact, it’s how the couple met — and the 9-year-old has learned how to fight them all his life.
The 36-year-old father had his son hold the catching pole around the animal’s neck
The father moved the alligator to a grassy median and began spinning it around in what is often called a death roll, a spinning maneuver that subdues prey.
Officers tried to drive the animal off the road with their cars, but it eventually crawled under a police car.
That’s when 36-year-old Graves, a contractor with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and his young son walked in with their long fishing pole.
The elder Graves was able to get the loop on the end of the pole around the alligator’s neck and pulled it out from under the vehicle and off the road.
He brought the alligator to a grassy median and began spinning it around in what is often called a death roll, a spinning maneuver that subdues prey.
Graves wrapped the catch pole around a street sign and then called his 9-year-old son for help.
“We would never put him or any of our children in danger, and he should not be helping unless we have full control of the situation and are ordered to come and help, just as you can see happening in the video,” he said. said.
The younger Counts held the catch pole around the animal’s neck while his father sat on top of the alligator and began closing its mouth.
After he started wrapping tape around the alligator’s mouth, the young father had his son help him finish the job.
The young boy helped his father wrap tape around the alligator’s mouth
The father impressively collared the creature and had his son help secure it so it could be transported, with the aim of teaching the boy to one day catch them himself.
Once they had the animal fully secured, Graves backed up to the median and opened his trunk to transport the alligator.
He picked up the colossal creature and placed it in his Volkswagen Jetta TDI, which Graves said can hold up to 10-foot-long alligators.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed to The Florida Times-Union that the animal had been taken to an alligator farm.
The boy’s parents said everyone in their family catches alligators — in fact, it’s how the couple met — and the 9-year-old has learned how to handle them all his life.
‘He literally started learning the ropes from day one. The day my wife and I were released from the hospital with my son, before we brought him home, we went right out and caught an alligator. So you can say he has literally been doing it since birth,” the father said.