A Florida man had his hand bitten off by a massive alligator while he was fishing in a golf course pond.<\/p>\n
The unidentified man was attacked by the monstrous gator on Sunday afternoon at a pond in Pennbrooke Fairways, a golf course and residential community in the Leesburg, about an hour outside of Orlando.<\/p>\n
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimated that the gator was approximately nine-feet long.<\/p>\n
Ron Priest, a resident in the area, told FOX 35 that the bizarre incident took place in his backyard as his wife frantically called 911.<\/p>\n
‘While the guy was on the ground, the gator got the guy in the hand, and the two rolled,’ Priest said.<\/p>\n
He reportedly saw the fisherman reeling in a fish just before the gator pounced on him and snatched his hand off.<\/p>\n
Priest’s wife was one of two worried neighbors who called the police to report the brutal attack.<\/p>\n
Lake County Fire Rescue released those calls as Priest’s wife is heard saying: ‘There is a gator attacking a man in my backyard!’<\/p>\n
‘Yes, ma’am,’ the dispatcher responds.<\/p>\n
She says: ‘Some people now have stopped in their gold carts!’<\/p>\n
In the second call, a dispatcher answers the call and says: ‘Is this regarding the gator attack?’<\/p>\n
‘Yes, he took his hand off,’ the person responds.<\/p>\n
‘Oh no, okay,’ the dispatcher says.<\/p>\n
The worried caller then says: ‘Hand is gone!’<\/p>\n
Priest said that he thinks the gator was after the large fish that the man captured, but doesn’t know if he was ‘trying to unhook’ it in the chaotic moment.<\/p>\n
He saw the gator attack the man and scurry back into the water just before emergency personnel arrived at the scene.<\/p>\n
The victim was airlifted to a hospital in downtown Orlando and his condition is unclear.<\/p>\n
Priest said that officials told him that the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission ‘can’t dispose of a human part.’<\/p>\n
He said that the man’s hand was sent to a medical facility in Orlando in case it can be re-attached to his body.<\/p>\n
The reptile was shot after officials deemed it to be a ‘nuisance gator’- an alligator that measures longer than four-feet or ‘poses a threat to people, pets or property,’ according to the agency’s website.<\/p>\n
In May, horrifying footage emerged of a man who has his right arm bitten off by an alligator while he went outside to go to the bathroom at a Florida bar.<\/p>\n
Jordan Rivera, 23, was seen writhing in pain on the muddy banks of a pond outside of Banditos in Port Charlotte, just north of Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
He was rushed to the hospital and said that he barely remembered what happened as he sat in the ICU.<\/p>\n
‘I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm, it’s not the end of the world,’ Rivera said.<\/p>\n
‘As I was going over there something happened where I either tripped or the ground below me just went down. I ended up in the water. And that’s literally the last thing I remember.’<\/p>\n
Rivera, from Englewood, was airlifted to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers, but his arm could not be saved, said Todd Dunn for Charlotte County Fire and EMS.<\/p>\n