It was a monster: Hunters kill enormous 360kg alligator that was feasting on farm cattle

Two Florida hunters said they bagged a 360kg alligator that had been feasting on their farm cattle.

Lee Lightsey, who owns the hunting business Outwest Farms in Okeechobee, spotted 4.6 metre alligator over the weekend in a cattle pond while on a gator hunt with his guide, Blake Godwin, according to news reports.

“Although this animal is huge, I was not that surprised it existed,” Lightsey told BBC News. “We have come across lots over the last 20 years that have been only a little smaller.

“But what really drew our attention to this animal was the fact that it seems to have been feasting on the cattle on my farm, because mutilated body parts were found in the water. It was a monster which needed to be removed.”

Godwin told a Fox affiliate that the giant gator came to the surface about six metres in front of them and Lightsey shot it.

The alligator was so enormous, Godwin said, the hunters had to use a farm tractor to pull it from the cattle pond.

Lightsey calls himself a lifetime hunter who has been in the business for more than 18 years. After Saturday’s kill, the group posted a picture on Facebook, saying it was “the largest gator we have ever killed in the wild!”

As attention on the alligator hunt spread, the group appeared to take down the post.

Lightsey’s Outwest Farms supervises hunts for alligators, wild boar and Osceola Turkeys, according to the company’s website. Prices are listed between US$350 for bass fishing and US$1,800 for a three-day turkey hunt. Outwest Farms’ alligator kills range from $550 for a f1.5 metre gator and US$10,000 for one larger than 4 metres.

The American alligator population in the United States “reached all-time lows in the 1950s, primarily due to market-hunting and habitat loss,” according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But in 1987, the alligator -“was pronounced fully recovered, making it one of the first endangered species success stories,” according to the government.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says that though alligators fall under federal protections, state-approved management and control programs permit those with proper licenses to take them.

Lightsey notes on Outwest Farms’ website that he has been “commercially hunting alligators since they have been able to be harvested starting in 1988.”

Still, the recent catch drew mixed reactions from commenters on the group’s Facebook page.

“Y’all have so much controversy on social media, half say it’s fake other half think your (sic) animal murderers,” one Facebook user wrote. “I say great job guys!”

The hunters plan to have the alligator stuffed for display, but will donate the meat to charity.

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