A viral video taken this weekend shows an alligator attack in Utah, and a bystander’s heroic attempt to stop it. The video was taken at Scales and Tails Utah, where an unidentified employee was showing a captive alligator to a group of customers. The gator bit down on her hand and began twisting, but one of the customers actually jumped in to save her.
The alligator demonstration went off the rails just as soon as the video began when the employee opened the enclosure to interact with the animal. Immediately, the alligator ignored the handler’s commands and tried to push past her to get out of the enclosure. Though she was clearly using pre-established commands and gestures, the alligator lashed out and grabbed her hand, then refused to let go for about a minute. In the meantime, a customer named Donnie Wiseman leaped into the enclosure with almost no hesitation to try to save her.
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The woman was pulled into the water with the alligator, where she wrapped her legs around its head and tried to pry herself loose. As other customers called out for help, Wiseman went around behind the gator and wrestled its tail and legs, preventing it from thrashing hard enough to hurt the employee even more. Other employees showed up and freed the woman, leaving Wiseman in there with the gator.
With some calm coaching from the staff, Wiseman was able to extricate himself from the enclosure without suffering any apparent injuries himself. According to a report by TMZ, the employee is now in the hospital, where she is recovering, though her status is unclear. Meanwhile, Scales and Tails made a Facebook post thanking Wiseman for his heroic intervention.
“We want to send a huge shoutout to Donnie Wiseman and Todd & Amy Christopher!” the post read. “We want to thank them for their heroism. Working with some of these animals has inherent risks that we as the staff accept. Yesterday, the sort of event that we hope never happens happened. One of our gator handlers got bitten by our large alligator and things took a bad turn.”
“These gentleman [sic] could have stayed in the safety zone as most of us would, but instead jumped into the situation, of their own volition, and helped secure the alligator,” it continued. “Their help, combined with the training of our staff member, probably saved her life and her limbs. Mrs. Christopher had a nursing background and started first aid prior to the EMT’s arrival and we thank her for that as well. Our staff member is doing well and is in recovery.”
