Plantation residents are living in fear of what they call an aggressive alligator living in the lake behind their houses.
A decapitated dog floats in the water as reminder of the creature's appetite, reports WSVN 7, and families say they have seen the 12-foot gator lunge at a person, devour ducks, and snack on something that looked larger than a dog.
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Now fearing for the safety of small children who live or visit houses on the lake, neighbors have called in professional trapper Kevin Garvey. Read the story at WSVN to see how he hopes to capture the scaled predator.
The South Florida neighborhood is no stranger to gator encounters. In July, an aggressive gator snatched and killed a Weimaraner dog along a Plantation canal bank while it's owner was walking it.
Back in July, a trapper wrestled and captured an 8-foot gator in Plantation, who was blocking the street on Flamingo Road and Sunrise Boulevard.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says that gators are more likely to attack dogs than humans, because dogs resemble their natural prey. The sound of dogs barking and playing may even attract a gator's attention.
Carli Segelson, public information coordinator for the FWC, says "It is not likely that an alligator would eat a child." Gator attacks on human are quite rare. The FWC reports that there were only two cited gator bites in 2011 and three such human attacks in 2010.