Woman jumped into pond and fought alligator as it tried to kill her dog

Lori Beiswenger will do anything for her dog, even fight off a 7½-foot alligator. Beiswenger, owner of Point O'Woods golf course in Inverness, Florida, was outside gardening with her 9-year-old terrier mix, Hope, on July 11, when she heard a scream. She turned and saw an alligator pull the dog into a nearby pond. "I hear the most God awful, piercing scream that I have ever heard in my life," she said. "I saw teeth and hair and gator," recalled the 52-year-old mother of four. "I was screaming her name, 'Hope, no!'" she said. "Then I started screaming, 'Somebody help!'" No one heard her screams.



"I jumped in, grabbed the [gator's] tail and pulled him back and he started thrashing and rolling her [Hope] some more," she said. Up to her neck in water, Beiswenger pulled the gator's tail a second time. "The third time I did it, he turned around and looked at me," she said. Fearing for her life, Beiswenger got out of the water. As she looked back, Hope was still sinking and the gator kept pulling her under the water. Beiswenger said she threw herself onto the ground and kept screaming. Finally, Jodie Daniels, a golf course volunteer, who was teeing up on hole one, heard Hope yelping. That's when he ran over to help.





"I thought it [Hope] was dead because all I could see was the whites of its eyes," said Daniels. Listening to Beiswenger's pleas, Daniels grabbed a golf club and waded into the water until he was knee deep. Daniels says he was unable to reach Hope with the golf club because it wasn't long enough. That's when Beiswenger brought him a shovel. "It was quite a shock to pull the dog up and the gator is still attached to the dog," he recalled. Bloodied, but with all her legs still attached, Hope ran onto the dry land and the gator followed. Daniels recalled hitting the gator on the top of the head with the shovel and the gator swimming off. Beiswenger picked up Hope, put her in a golf cart and drove her to the clubhouse.


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Once there, she grabbed a tablecloth and used it as a tourniquet. She managed to get Hope to an emergency vet nearby. Since Hope swallowed a lot of water, there were complications with being able to immediately take her into surgery, Beiswenger said. Eventually, Hope would undergo a three-hour surgery. Hope went home that night. "I was on death watch," Beiswenger said. The next day, a private company trapped the gator. Beiswenger watched as the gator was pulled from the pond and had his feet tied behind his back. The company later killed the gator and sold the gator meat to a restaurant, according to Beiswenger. Hope is expected to have her stitches removed on Saturday.