This dog really was this man’s best friend.
Mike McCoy’s eight-month-old chocolate lab, Jake, was recently attacked by an alligator on Tuesday (May 11).
They were walking near a pond behind Paul R. Smith Middle School in Holiday, Florida, when all of a sudden, Jake was snatched by the gator and pulled underwater.
Almost immediately, Mike jumped in the water to rescue his dog. Mike managed to get the gator out of the water where he continued to wrestle the beast, trying to free his dog from the grasp of the gator.
Once he got Jake free, the gator went after him. Thankfully, both are on the mend after receiving some stitches.
Mike spoke with WFTS Tampa Bay about the scary encounter.
“He was in the death roll with that old gator,” Mike said. “I previously read up on my environment and gators. I got around, thumbed him the eye, picked him out of the water so he couldn’t get anywhere until he let the dog go. And in the interim he decided, I don’t have him, I’ll bite you.”
A teacher named Kellie Mallon was in her second story classroom and saw the whole thing – and the school nurse helped bandage Mike up.
“It was kind of like a snake darting really fast. It was super fast,” Mallon said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission told ABC Action News that the gator is estimated to be between seven and nine feet long. They are working on removing the alligator from the pond.
The FWC wants the public to know that these types of attacks are rare, but to be careful when around water during these upcoming warmer months.
Watch the news report about it below.