A Utah reptile center employee is recovering after an alligator yanked her into its enclosure and a guest literally jumped in to save her. Yesterday, we showed you this video of the dramatic scene and here’s the rest of the story. Donnie Wiseman was at a five-year-old’s birthday party at Scales & Tales when an unnamed female handler opened the eight-foot gator’s enclosure to feed it, but it clamped down on her hand, dragging her inside.
The reptile known as “Darth Gator” started thrashing around, pulling the handler into the water. Donnie yelled, “We’ve got trouble in here” then rushed into the danger zone to help. He climbed onto the gator’s back as the handler gave him and another guest, Todd Christopher instructions to help her escape.
Despite her hand being inside an alligator’s mouth, she remained calm and within minutes, the gator released its grip and Christoper pulled her out. Wiseman stayed on the animal’s back, following the handler’s directions and soon escaped himself. She’s now recovering from surgery and is doing well and neither man was seriously hurt.
Scales & Tales thanks the men for rushing to save the handler in a statement writing, “Their help, combined with the training of our staff member, probably saved her life and her limbs.”
WOW!