‘The gator has me’: Elderly woman dies saving pet dog from alligator

A trapper secures the alligator for transportation. Photo / Twitter

An 85-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while trying to save her dog at a senior living community on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

Horrified neighbours saw Gloria Serge being dragged into water by the 10ft reptile during an attack at the Spanish Lakes Fairways community, in Fort Pierce, on Monday.

As she gasped for air, Serge was urged by a friend to swim towards a nearby paddle boat, but according to a witness, she said: “I can’t, the gator has me.” She then disappeared under the water.

Carol Thomas, the friend who witnessed the attack, told local TV station WPBF that the victim was a widow. She described her as “quiet and kind” and said: “She had many good friends here, and she loved her dog.”

Thomas described how the attack unfolded quickly after an alligator lunged at Serge’s small dog, saying: “I just remember her coming up and you know... getting air, and I’m saying swim toward the, swim toward the paddle boat, and she says: ‘I can’t, the gator has me.’”

Thomas, 77, called emergency services and grabbed a pole to try and help her friend. She said: “I thought well, I’ll put that out in the water and hook her or hit him, and... she was not there any more.

“I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get in the water. I never woke up this Monday morning and thought I would be watching someone die.”

The dog survived the attack, but Serge succumbed to her injuries, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

A police helicopter helped locate the alligator in the lake and trappers later dragged it out. They estimated that it weighed between 600 and 700 pounds.

Fatal alligator attacks are rare, but there have been two deaths in the last year in Florida.

In May, authorities found the body of a 47-year-old man who had been retrieving Frisbees from a lake in Largo, and in July an 80-year-old woman was killed by two alligators after she fell into a pond near her house in Englewood.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there have been 442 unprovoked alligator bites on humans, including 26 fatalities, between 1948 and 2021.

The chance of a person in Florida being injured in an unprovoked alligator attack is about one in 3.1 million, according to the commission.

Once on the endangered species list, the alligator has recovered to a point at which wildlife officials estimate the Florida population at more than 1.3 million.