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'Biggest I've Ever Seen': Massive Alligator Trapped At Mini-Golf Course Is Euthanized

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (CBS Local) -- An alligator believed to be the largest ever captured on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, was euthanized after it was trapped Tuesday evening at a miniature golf course.

Photos posted on social media show dozens of bystanders watching as the giant alligator, estimated to be more than 12 feet long and weighing more than a thousand pounds, was bound and put on a tow truck to be moved. "It was the biggest gator I've ever seen," island resident Daisy Bobinchuck, who assisted in the capture of the gator, told The Island Packet.

Residents were angered by reports of bystanders "riding" the bound alligator, the newspaper reported, turning the capture into a "sideshow."

The alligator weighed around 1,000 pounds.

Posted by The Island Packet on Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Bobinchuck said she was working on binding the animal's back legs when a handful of people started to sit on the alligator for photos. She said the massive crowd that gathered near the golf course "was totally in the way."

Dana Maffo of Critter Management told WJCL the alligator, found behind Legendary Golf, the putt putt course near Fresh Market, was not being aggressive but was looking for food.

Bobinchuck said the team from Critter Management wanted to relocate the 80 to 100-year-old alligator, but the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources ordered the gator be euthanized.

"We wanted it to be a rescue, and we were coming up with a different plan for it not to be euthanized," she said. "But DNR was very strict about that. We had to euthanize it."

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