An Inverness, Florida, woman risked her life by taking on an alligator that was trying to eat her dog, Hope.
"It was the dumbest, bravest thing I have ever done, but I wasn't going to let her go," Lori Beiswenger told Bay News 9.
Earlier this month, Beiswenger was planting trees on the nine-hole Point O' Woods Golf Course, which she owns with her husband, when she heard Hope scream. The gator had attacked the dog, and was dragging it into a nearby pond.
Beiswenger waded into the water and began pulling the gator's tail. The gator soon noticed and turned toward her. Beiswenger then hurried back to shore.
Jodie Daniels, a golf course volunteer who was nearby, heard Beiswenger calling for help. He grabbed a shovel and managed to free the dog. "It was quite a shock to pull the dog up and the gator is still attached to the dog," Daniels told local ABC affiliate WFTS.
Daniels hit the gator on the head with the shovel, but it managed to escape. An animal control company came the next day to trap the gator and take it away.
"I read him his Miranda rights," Beiswenger told WFTS, joking about the way the animal was tied with its arms behind its back.
The gator was killed and sold to a local restaurant for meat.
Hope underwent a three-hour surgery for a severed artery and is expected to have her stitches removed this weekend. "I love this dog," Beiswenger told CBS affiliate WTSP. "I wasn't going to lose her."
Hope has escaped death in the past: Beiswenger adopted her when she was due to be put down, and the dog later survived getting hit by a car. "She is quite the wonder dog," Beiswenger told Bay News 9.
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