HILTON HEAD, S.C. — The manager of a gated community on the South Carolina coast says a dead alligator found on the property had been shot.
The alligator carcass was collected and removed last week from private property on Hilton Head Plantation, general manager Peter Kristian told The Island Packet.
[ ALSO READ: 9-foot gator taken away on ‘leash’ after stroll through NC neighborhood ]
Kristian said he suspects the gator was shot elsewhere and then dumped in his gated community of 4,250 homes, because none of the residents reported hearing gunfire.
“Gunshots are something my residents let me know about night or day,” Kristian said.
Killing an alligator can be punishable as a misdemeanor under South Carolina law unless someone has a permit to hunt them during the designated hunting season in September and October.
An 8 foot (2.4 meter) alligator was captured at Hilton Head Plantation and euthanized in September after it attacked a woman walking her dog. The woman was treated at a hospital for leg injuries after neighbors freed her by whacking the alligator’s snout with a shovel.
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