PETALING JAYA, Nov 24 — A Florida man's love for his puppy was shown after he went all out to rescue it from the jaws of an alligator.
And he did the heroic act without dropping the cigar that was in his mouth.
Richard Wilbanks, 74, ran to his backyard pond and pried the alligator’s jaw open to free his puppy, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel.
Wilbanks told CNN that he was walking with his dog when the alligator came out of the water “like a missile” and snatched the puppy.
“Adrenaline and instinct kicked in and I jumped into the water.
“Holding the alligator wasn’t as hard as prying open its jaws to free my puppy,” he said.
Footage from the video showed the dog yelping in pain as it was snatched by the alligator while Wilbanks was trying to force open the reptile’s jaw.
While the 74-year-old, whose hands were “chewed up,” was given a tetanus shot by his doctor, his puppy is recovering from the wound in the stomach due to the attack after it was brought to the veterinarian.
Wilbanks told the news portal that he doesn’t want the reptile removed from the pond as its part of nature.
For safety precautions, he will be keeping his puppy on a leash and at least three metres away from the pond.
