TAMPA, Fla. – A Tampa dog owner is being hailed as a hero after she bravely pried open an alligator’s jaws to rescue her beloved pet from a vicious attack. Kim Spencer and her nine-year-old rescue dog, Kona, were taking an evening walk on Tuesday when the harrowing incident occurred.
Spencer recounted to WSVN the terrifying ordeal, saying, “I didn’t see anything at all at the time, and then all of a sudden I heard something. Suddenly, I saw the eyes. I saw it turning itself around, so I started pulling her right away. I said, ‘Kona, let’s go,’ but she’s a really strong dog.”
In a matter of seconds, a large alligator lunged out of the water and seized Kona. “She’s facing it, it’s facing her, and it suddenly jumped out and got her. So, she was in up to here. Her whole head was inside its mouth,” Spencer described to the outlet.
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Driven by instinct, Spencer’s actions were nothing short of extraordinary. “And I guess that’s where I stopped thinking and just dove on it, jumped on it and straddled it, as ladylike as that is, and was trying to pry its jaws open.”
Spencer managed to pry open the jaws of the six-and-a-half-foot-long alligator from behind. “Its back was to me, so it made me just jump on it. And I guess, because the girls at work are asking me which hand was which jaw? I’m like, I don’t know,” she said. “We just got lucky because just as quickly as it ran after us, it went back into the water, and we were out of there.”
Both Spencer and Kona sustained injuries and are recovering from stitches, as well as the physical and emotional trauma. “We’re empty nesters; she’s my baby, so I wasn’t ready to take on that mindset of an animal versus a human,” Spencer shared with WSVN.
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Spencer’s harrowing experience serves as a stark reminder of the potential dangers of Florida wildlife. “It could easily happen, and you might not be that lucky to get your child or your pet. Many people say they are more afraid of us than we are of them. Clearly not the case.”
Wildlife experts urge residents to exercise caution and never feed alligators, as this can encourage them to lose their natural fear of humans and approach them more readily.
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