Meka the dog killed by gator in Immokalee

A dog was killed Sunday morning by an alligator at the Arrowhead Reserve Community.

Katherine Akkoul said she couldn’t find her dog, Meka. Akkoul and her husband first saw an alligator thrashing in a pond near her home.

“My husband went over to investigate and sure enough our puppy was in the water and was ripped apart by the alligator,” Akkoul said.

Akkoul’s husband grabbed Meka by the collar, and fought the gator, but Meka couldn’t be saved.

Akkoul said the alligators pose a safety concern to the community, which is filled with pets and children.

“These alligators are enormous and vicious and they can easily take one of my children,” Akkoul said.

She added there needs to be action.

“An alligator can easily run up the shoreline 10 to 15 feet where our children are running around safely,” Akkoul said.

Below are tips to stay safe in the event of coming into contact with a gator:

• Run: Humans, on average, can outrun gators on land. “They are not made for running after prey,” Darlington said. You should be fine once you are 20 or 30 feet from the reptile and Darlington said it is safe to take pictures or observe the animal from a distance.
• Put up a fight: Gators are designed for grabbing things that don’t want to be grabbed, but if you put up a big enough struggle, Darlington is confident that the gator will retreat. “Your size is what saves you from these things,” he said. “They don’t like people.” When asked if it would help to punch the gator in the snout or the eyes, Darlington said that was “malarkey” and doubts that anyone would be so coordinated during a gator attack.
• Make noise: Alligators generally try to avoid people. The thinking goes that the more ruckus you make, the less likely gators are to come nearby. “If there’s a lot of human activity, gators like to stay offshore and stay away,” Darlington told CBS News.

Information from CBS News contributed to this story.