Wallace Weatherholt, Of Captain Doug's Airboat Tours, Charged With Unlawful Alligator Feeding (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Man Loses More Than Hand After Allegedly Feeding Gator

An Everglades City airboat captain whose hand was bitten off has been charged with unlawful feeding of an alligator.

In June Captain Wallace Weatherholt, 63, who works at Captain Doug's Small Airport Tours, was out with six tourists when the attack occurred.

The Indiana family onboard said that Weatherholt held a fish out above the water's surface just before a gator leapt up and bit off his hand.

Weatherholt was able to drive himself back to the docks. Meanwhile wildlife officers tracked down the gator and killed it before retrieving the captain's hand from its stomach.

Feeding gators is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida. Weatherholt was held in Collier County Jail on $1,000 bond but has since posted out.

David Weathers, a nuisance-alligator trapper told Fort Myers News-Press, that when gators are fed, they lose their natural fear of humans and are more likely to attack.

In cell phone footage taken by a NBC2 producer who was on a Captain Doug's tour a few weeks prior to Weatherholt's injury, an unidentified airboat captain can be seen feeding a large gator who jumps feet out of the water towards the food.

Watch the video above.

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