Some residents in a San Carlos Park say a dead alligator is creating a stinky situation in their neighborhood. The gator is floating in the canal under the bridge on New Jersey Boulevard, between Phlox Drive and Laurel Valley Road.
"I believe it was obviously just dumped here," said Roy Demers, whose home on Laurel Valley Road abuts the canal.
Demers said he was walking his dog across the bridge on New Year's Day when he discovered the bloated alligator floating upside down in the canal. Its severed tail was floating nearby.
"I would actually consider it a health hazard," Demers said. "In the afternoon when school's out, you see young boys fishing off the bridge."
The dead gator is already causing a string smell around the bridge, which has homes immediately on either side.
"I think somebody ought to remove it, because it's covered with flies right now," said Judy Kiffer, who also has a home on the canal. "It really needs to be out of here."
A Lee County spokeswoman told Fox 4 that the canal is under the jurisdiction of the East Mulloch Drainage District. She said that Lee County's Department of Transportation would ask that agency to come out and remove the dead alligator.
"This canal is alive with fish and turtles," Kiffer said. "We don't need anything like that in there."
Fox 4 reached out to the East Mulloch Drainage District for comment, but did not hear back by late Thursday.
