Fort Worth's blind alligator shot and killed

FORT WORTH, Texas - A game warden killed a 10-foot blind alligator that began roaming around Lake Worth last month.

A spokesman for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said the gator was not healthy and unable to care for itself. It also continued to swim in areas near humans.

The gator was in the Trinity River last Friday in the Fort Worth suburb of River Oaks when the game warden shot and killed it.

Residents who live near the lake noticed something different about the alligator. Jon Fincher took video of it bumping into his dock and John Degroat said he saw it struggling to catch food.

“He went down. Three ducks flew down. They swim across. We're like, ‘Oh no!’” Degroat said. “And he snapped and missed them.”

The Fort Worth Nature Center believes it was the same blind alligator that was tagged during a study a few years ago.

In June they got a 10-day nuisance certificate from the state that allowed them to hunt it. The plan was to move the gator to backwater areas away from the public, but it was never caught.

Officials had hoped the alligator had moved back home and out of sight.