Speaker 1: Really now, really, really.
Speaker 2: Now, really Hello and welcome to Really Know Really with
Speaker 2: Jason Alexander and Peter Tilden, who invite you to subscribe
Speaker 2: and allow us to be your emotional support podcast.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 1: Speaking of emotional.
Speaker 2: Support, have you heard about Wally, the five foot long,
Speaker 2: sixty pound emotional support alligator. Wally's owner sleeps with him,
Speaker 2: walks him on a leash, and even hosts children's pool
Speaker 2: parties featuring the allegedly docile reptile. Really, with their inhuman eyes,
Speaker 2: prehistoric looks, razor sharp teeth, and propensity to eat small
Speaker 2: dogs and occasionally their full sized owners. Most of us
Speaker 2: have concluded that alligators are mindless, aggressive killing machines, but
Speaker 2: today's guest says we're wrong.
Speaker 4: Really.
Speaker 2: Recent studies indicate that reptiles may have the capacity to
Speaker 2: feel emotions such as anxiety and even pleasure, and today's guests,
Speaker 2: Paul Bedard, one of the most knowledgeable people on the
Speaker 2: planet when it comes to understanding the psyche of wild alligators,
Speaker 2: explains to the guys how humans can train and interact
Speaker 2: with alligators in a safe and even playful way. Really, no, really, now,
Speaker 2: now here's two guys who wouldn't turn down emotional support,
Speaker 2: even if it did come from a mindless killing machine.
Speaker 1: Jason and Peter, here we go. Or you're exciting left,
Speaker 1: that's what's gonna be. This is what's gonna be one.
Speaker 1: I'm excited. I'm really excited.
Speaker 5: This is this is one that you got excited about
Speaker 5: that you stumbled on, well, okay, on to this topic.
Speaker 5: So and you you really this this this kind of
Speaker 5: took a deep bite on you, didn't it.
Speaker 1: I went down. I went down an alligator hall. So
Speaker 1: let me say what happened. I see a story that's
Speaker 1: been on a lot of channels, a lot of places,
Speaker 1: I think CBS Sunday Morning about Wally, this emotional support alligator.
Speaker 1: And in Pennsylvania, this gentleman who's rescued reptiles and loves reptiles,
Speaker 1: rescued Wally, who I think is now like six pounds
Speaker 1: and five feet long and carries them like a baby,
Speaker 1: walks him on a leash, sleeps next to them in
Speaker 1: the bed. And I'm looking going and and while he
Speaker 1: is his emotional support, legally his emotional support, alligator puts
Speaker 1: his hand in his mouth, shows he will never bite,
Speaker 1: never bite.
Speaker 5: Right to see him scratching the alligator's tongue right, which
Speaker 5: would make any other alligator snap.
Speaker 1: You would bite If I scratch your tongue right now,
Speaker 1: you'd bite. How do you not bite? So he's really
Speaker 1: and and but maybe I get alligators wrong because they're
Speaker 1: prehistoric looking. It's not a cute animal they are. He's
Speaker 1: just looking. They've been around since. But then because I'm
Speaker 1: researching this, I get pushed out this guy Paul Medard,
Speaker 1: who works at a place in Florida that's a reptile
Speaker 1: that does a reptile show. He was also on a
Speaker 1: show called Gator Boys. And he's there with alligators that
Speaker 1: decide to will win a bago on his chest, kissing them,
Speaker 1: carrying them, plugging them around, lying down with him, and
Speaker 1: they're not biting. And I'm looking at this going he
Speaker 1: So I want to talk to because we can ask
Speaker 1: him if the others alligator are going to buy because
Speaker 1: he's around alligators all the time. This is his wife.
Speaker 1: So we got paulmod Ard on with us, who catches
Speaker 1: and rescues alligators that have been deemed a threat to people, pets,
Speaker 1: are livestock. He was in Gator Boys and he runs
Speaker 1: the Gator Boys Alligator Rescue Sanctuary, which is in the
Speaker 1: Everglades Holiday Park. And I became obsessed with you, Paul,
Speaker 1: because it started out with the story of Wally, the
Speaker 1: emotional support alligator. I'm watching the guy with that in Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: my home state, whatever, and I'm watching he's doing stuff
Speaker 1: with the gator, and I'm going, this thing is going
Speaker 1: to want of this day. It's going to end badly.
Speaker 1: It's sleeping with the gator. He's doing a whole bit,
Speaker 1: and then he's taking it into a pool and it's
Speaker 1: swimming with kids, and I'm going, oh my gosh. And
Speaker 1: then it pushes out because I'm doing research you and
Speaker 1: you're sitting there with Casper, who's the size of a
Speaker 1: Winner bag, and he's got his head on your lap.
Speaker 1: And I've now watched i think every video you have ever.
Speaker 1: I'm so obsessed with you that it's amazing, and I
Speaker 1: the takeaway sort of jumping to the end, but I
Speaker 1: think it's important how misunderstood I was as far as
Speaker 1: gats and how they react and what they are. So
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on number one. But it's amazing
Speaker 1: what you do. So tell us a little about I
Speaker 1: knew Gator Boys is on for a couple of years.
Speaker 1: Will you rescue these things?
Speaker 3: I think it's six seasons on animal plans.
Speaker 1: Oh wow. So how did you get involved with reptiles
Speaker 1: and specifically gators that you decided this is what you
Speaker 1: want to do.
Speaker 3: It just happened. It wasn't like I mean, I always
Speaker 3: loved alligators and sharks and stuff, but I grew up
Speaker 3: in New England and then when I was out of college,
Speaker 3: I was racing triathlons, like pretty seriously. So I would
Speaker 3: just couchsurf up and down the East Coast and take
Speaker 3: any job at any random bike shop or a zoo
Speaker 3: that was dumb enough to hire me because I was
Speaker 3: leaving in three months when the weather changed, and I
Speaker 3: started working at a small zoo in Hollywood on the
Speaker 3: Native Seminole reservation, and I just asked one day where
Speaker 3: do you get your gators from? And they were like, oh,
Speaker 3: we just go grab out of the swamp because we're
Speaker 3: on seminal property, the big Cypress. And I said, well,
Speaker 3: I should buy him off the trappers they're going to
Speaker 3: kill him. They're like, you want to wats three hundred
Speaker 3: bucks in the gator? Go for it, we get them
Speaker 3: for free, so almost approve a point. I went and
Speaker 3: bought an alligator, and then the trapper eventually said, hey,
Speaker 3: if you want to save alligators, mother Teresa, but I'm
Speaker 3: too busy. When I'm too busy, you can feel free
Speaker 3: to catch the gators that i'm You have too many
Speaker 3: to catch, and whatever you catch is yours. And then
Speaker 3: my life pretty much ended.
Speaker 1: So how much experience? So when you're going to catch gators,
Speaker 1: your young guy, how much expertise did you have on
Speaker 1: their behaviors so that you wouldn't get eaten or killed?
Speaker 3: Well, I was really lucky as a young man. There's
Speaker 3: a guy named Many Quig that a lot of this
Speaker 3: people these days don't recognize. He's the best animal guy
Speaker 3: that's ever walked the planet. Like it's not even close
Speaker 3: to No one ever rode a shark until Many did it.
Speaker 3: No one ever went diving in the water with alligators
Speaker 3: until Many did it. And then like eighteen or twenty
Speaker 3: years old, he had me diving in the Everglades with
Speaker 3: wild alligators and I was like, we're going to die.
Speaker 3: This is the craziest thing ever. And he would go
Speaker 3: down and lesitate. This twelve foot behemoth off the bottom,
Speaker 3: and I just was blown away. I couldn't even imagine
Speaker 3: you could get away with that stuff.
Speaker 5: And that's an alligator that he had had no experience with,
Speaker 5: so it's not something that he had built any kind
Speaker 5: of rapport with.
Speaker 3: Right now, what?
Speaker 1: Okay? How?
Speaker 3: Why?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 3: Is?
Speaker 5: Why would they not naturally be fearful of him or
Speaker 5: feel that they were threatened in somebody?
Speaker 3: You're the smartest guy I've talked to in a long time,
Speaker 3: because you said fearful, which is exactly the case. Everybody
Speaker 3: says they want to eat you. Pretators in general want
Speaker 3: to eat something smaller. They want to risk being the
Speaker 3: meal themselves, so they want to go after something like
Speaker 3: a gator eight foot gator, typically raccoon, possum, fish, bird,
Speaker 3: something like that. They go after something my size. You
Speaker 3: could end up with a panther that eats you. So
Speaker 3: they generally don't want to eat us on the land.
Speaker 3: It's why you walk up on the golf course. They
Speaker 3: jump in the water and take off like they stole something.
Speaker 3: But in the water, I get attacked all the time
Speaker 3: because I go in the water to catch these guys
Speaker 3: and they be lined for me. Which is great because
Speaker 3: that's how I catch them. I go in the water,
Speaker 3: splash around, I put the noose up, they swimmer into it.
Speaker 3: Now we had a gator and a leash.
Speaker 5: No misjudge. I totally get what he's saying. I would
Speaker 5: feel so lucky swimming right towards my news. I go,
Speaker 5: good day, What a great day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just don't just don't miss the noose.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. If you miss caveats, of course,
Speaker 1: right and.
Speaker 3: Again, it happens. It does happen all the time. I'll
Speaker 3: get in the water, gat will be line for me.
Speaker 3: I wait, there's a video on my Instagram where I
Speaker 3: just picked the noose up. He swims right into it.
Speaker 3: And now we got a gator in a leash. And
Speaker 3: if you're not looking, and I've had that happen before
Speaker 3: where I was like, turned my there's a video. I
Speaker 3: haven't released it yet, but I'm pulling. I swam down
Speaker 3: noose to nine foot alligator. And where I caught him,
Speaker 3: I couldn't get him out of the water, too many
Speaker 3: trees around. So I was gonna swim to the boat ramp,
Speaker 3: which is like two three hundred yards. So as I'm
Speaker 3: dragging him along. He's like bouncing over stuff, and he
Speaker 3: gets stuck under a ledge, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I heard there was two gaters there, and I saw
Speaker 3: a little supposed to be a nine foot and a
Speaker 3: six footer. So I see a gat way off in
Speaker 3: the distance, but I'm like, he's just sitting there. He's
Speaker 3: a little six footer. Probably we're fine. And I get
Speaker 3: close and all of a sudden, this guy stuck under
Speaker 3: a ledge, and there's two voices in my head, the
Speaker 3: guy that wants to get stuff done and the coward.
Speaker 3: And the coward is like, hey, make sure you keep
Speaker 3: an eye on that gater because he might be on you.
Speaker 3: Because as I'm sitting there bouncing trying to get this
Speaker 3: gater out from this ledge, I'm just bopping up and
Speaker 3: down on the water. So I look at a wounded animal.
Speaker 3: And then the guy who's trying to get stuff done
Speaker 3: is like, dude, shut up, let me get him out
Speaker 3: of this ledge and then we'll look. And then the
Speaker 3: coward speaks up again, like, hey, if that thing took
Speaker 3: off when you started this, he's going to be in
Speaker 3: your face in two seconds. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: woos and I look up and he's like three feet
Speaker 3: from me, coming hard, and I just gave him the
Speaker 3: heisman and tossed him back and he ended up. I
Speaker 3: ended up catch, but I had to bring the other
Speaker 3: one to shore first. And there's three people on shore
Speaker 3: freaking out because they saw the whole thing. They told
Speaker 3: me it was a six and a nine. They were
Speaker 3: both nine. They would both be. They were freaked out,
Speaker 3: like I was gonna die. I was embarrassed that I
Speaker 3: was dumb enough to get that gator stuck on the ledge.
Speaker 3: And I'm coming out making an excuse just like I
Speaker 3: couldn't get them over the ledge, like I don't know
Speaker 3: what happened. They're like, they're all white, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: what's the problem, Like that has to happens all the time.
Speaker 1: I thought they're gonna say, seat floating, body parts floating. Well,
Speaker 1: may I say, man, say something because I watched and
Speaker 1: I love I love you, I love your personality, I
Speaker 1: love what you do. But with me, with cars, with
Speaker 1: anything happens in my life. I guess the one statement,
Speaker 1: which is, wow, I never saw that happen before. So
Speaker 1: you're saying they never do it, they don't do it,
Speaker 1: and I watched. The thing that I love the most
Speaker 1: is that you always get posts to say, well, it's
Speaker 1: going to happen eventually, and you laughed and said.
Speaker 3: Give me a day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, what you mean.
Speaker 3: It's like driving your car one day. If you drive
Speaker 3: your car, Logan get to do an accident, thanks Einstein, like, yeah,
Speaker 3: anything could happen. And listen, I get if you're the
Speaker 3: post that I try to respond with. I try to
Speaker 3: engage with people, and yeah, I get bit all the time.
Speaker 3: I probably been bitter for fifty times. I've been bit
Speaker 3: in the head five or six times, but not by
Speaker 3: those puppy lap dog gators. It's a gator that I'm
Speaker 3: rescuing or a gator I just caught. And I can't
Speaker 3: build that relationship with with every Casper, with every Zeus, Stumpy, Sebastian,
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera. They're fifteen or twenty more. I
Speaker 3: just can't build that relationship with There is an inherent
Speaker 3: melowist to some of those gators, Like I a gayer
Speaker 3: named Jigsaw. I did a YouTube video about him the
Speaker 3: day I caught him. I looked at the camera and said,
Speaker 3: I guarantee you two weeks I can pet him in
Speaker 3: the face. There's a depth in her eyes sometimes that
Speaker 3: I don't know how to explain it, but I know
Speaker 3: when I see it. So I have him about twenty times,
Speaker 3: but I could pet him in the face the fourth
Speaker 3: day he was in the pit.
Speaker 5: I do notice though, you just like I got a
Speaker 5: little bandage on your left hand there. I just it's
Speaker 5: just just anecdotally for people that.
Speaker 3: May don't ask you about your failures.
Speaker 1: No, but you don't have to ask about mine. They're
Speaker 1: they're fairly well known.
Speaker 3: Some research then bring them up. So the thing that
Speaker 3: got me, that's actually, that's actually I wish it was
Speaker 3: a gator was a chainsaw blade trying to sharpened it.
Speaker 3: Trying to sharpened a chainsaw in my truck in the rain.
Speaker 3: Because I'm an idiot.
Speaker 5: I know you you say you've been, you know, bitting
Speaker 5: on a number of occasions.
Speaker 1: I always think, you.
Speaker 5: Know, I we see the movies Delegator close its mouth,
Speaker 5: does the role You're gone?
Speaker 1: You have clearly uh survived. So what's the why? Why?
Speaker 5: Why why have you walked away from so many alligator bites?
Speaker 3: Usually it's stirring a feeding Like I get impatient at
Speaker 3: the end of the day. And if I'm doing a
Speaker 3: mass feeding, I'm just handing out meat like a dealer
Speaker 3: at a casino. Just like here, you get one, you
Speaker 3: get one, you get but all of a sudden, yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll have them grab me and they'll kind of shake
Speaker 3: them like, hey, sorry, dude, didn't know it was you.
Speaker 3: Spit me out, then do with the head tricks. Put
Speaker 3: my head in the geter's mouth and got bit. You know,
Speaker 3: five or six times, either I taste like crap or
Speaker 3: they know it's me and they're like, hey, dummy, stop
Speaker 3: touching stuff.
Speaker 1: In That wound is not a significant wound for you.
Speaker 3: And poor bleach in it and stitch it up. If
Speaker 3: you look at again my YouTube channel, I got been
Speaker 3: by a twelve foot gator in the arms a big
Speaker 3: twelve foot jump. We used to do a show for
Speaker 3: a school group and a little gator hole and a big, giant,
Speaker 3: twelve foot alligator would come out. You'd reach around with
Speaker 3: a stick and he would just pop up and scare
Speaker 3: the crap out of these kids. But it's to show that, hey,
Speaker 3: you can be in the middle of every lage. You
Speaker 3: see a little puddle, don't think that's a good place
Speaker 3: to fill your canteen. There might be a twelve foot
Speaker 3: alligator in there. So we were trying to get him
Speaker 3: in the water, and the guy was behind him and
Speaker 3: I'm tapping him on the nose because he'll jump at you.
Speaker 3: His name is Lunge, and he jumped, and when he
Speaker 3: jumped a second time, my foot hit a little like
Speaker 3: a tree stumped that was in there, and I couldn't
Speaker 3: slide my foot back, and he went over like instantly
Speaker 3: and just got one tooth in me and opened it up.
Speaker 3: As he had locked on. He probably would have taken
Speaker 3: my arm off. But I ended up teaching Jimmy, who
Speaker 3: was my partner on the TV show. I taught him
Speaker 3: how to sew that day on my arm. So poor
Speaker 3: bleach and tea tree oil and starts stitching.
Speaker 1: Kid, You realize with us, if that, what if those
Speaker 1: things happened, that's a story for the rest of our lives.
Speaker 1: And we not only wouldn't go back in the water
Speaker 1: or near the alligator, we'd move from Florida back to
Speaker 1: New England, probably where there are no alligators. So for
Speaker 1: people who haven't seen the videos, and we'll link to
Speaker 1: those videos, Paul's lying there some of them look affectionate
Speaker 1: toward him. I love that some come when you call
Speaker 1: their name. Now, they got a brain the size of
Speaker 1: a line of beans, so I didn't know that they
Speaker 1: have this spac That's the question. I mean, are are
Speaker 1: are our gators?
Speaker 5: They respond to you in the way that I would think,
Speaker 5: you know, a cat or a dog might, and and
Speaker 5: a dog is a pretty smart animal.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 5: They respond to you in the way that I would think,
Speaker 5: you know, a cat or a dog might, and and
Speaker 5: a dog is a pretty smart animal.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's all food driven, though. Most of
Speaker 3: them walking over with their mouth open. They're expecting something like, Hey,
Speaker 3: I did just stupid trick. Where's the reward? If you
Speaker 3: see this video I just posted on Instagram, I reposted
Speaker 3: one of me and this gator named Snoopy, and I
Speaker 3: chase him and tickle him, but he walks up, opens
Speaker 3: his mouth right in my face, and I just look
Speaker 3: at his mouth, I look back at the camera. I
Speaker 3: throw him the food and then I go like, tickle it.
Speaker 3: I mean, he just runs back in the water. I
Speaker 3: can't cuddle with that gator. He's a little too jumpy
Speaker 3: for that. That's why he kind of reacts to the
Speaker 3: tickle monster thing.
Speaker 5: Well, okay, so the gator the learning curve on that.
Speaker 5: By the way, Oh this one not so much. So
Speaker 5: I think just tickle, just tickle this one.
Speaker 3: No, no, incredible. That's a great point. There's I always say
Speaker 3: in my YouTube channel, Gator Boys Outdoors, that says at
Speaker 3: the beginning, like, hey, they're all very unpredictable from one
Speaker 3: to another, though, I mean like each one is unpredictable
Speaker 3: from one to another within themselves. Incredibly consistent animals. You
Speaker 3: gotta understand the operating system, and the gater's brain is
Speaker 3: so much smaller than that of like a mammal or
Speaker 3: a prime primate, especially that they have emotions, They hold grudges,
Speaker 3: they get their feelings hurt, they they plot and plan.
Speaker 3: Gators are like living breathing machines pretty much.
Speaker 1: But you know what, there were studies, Paul, and I'm sure,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're up on this. It showed they wanted
Speaker 1: to know gator sentience, what they felt, and they came
Speaker 1: up with that they feel anxiety, distress, frustration, excitement, fear, suffering,
Speaker 1: and that's I mean, that's about it. And I'm wondering
Speaker 1: when you're with them though, since they're they're they're hunter
Speaker 1: and they want to be fed. How do you know
Speaker 1: when you're playing with Casper that you threw them three
Speaker 1: chicken legs and he's full? How do you know Casper's
Speaker 1: not going I'm not there yet, I'm not at the close.
Speaker 3: It's it's actually the opposite. You don't want to feed
Speaker 3: him before you get in there, because Casper's cataracts to
Speaker 3: what I and the other one is probably almost completely blind,
Speaker 3: so his vision isn't great. So if you feed him
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden you go to touch a
Speaker 3: side of his face, he might think you're feeding him again.
Speaker 3: Grab it turns on that feeding response. Gators in Holiday
Speaker 3: Park are just like that, Like god Zilla's a sweetheart.
Speaker 3: I can kiss them on the side of the face.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to do it for a few minutes
Speaker 3: after I feed him, because he still has that feeding response.
Speaker 3: He's the He's not the brightest bulb in the chandelier.
Speaker 3: But so people think they're just stuffed with food. It's
Speaker 3: got nothing to do with that. They're not going to
Speaker 3: ever view me as a food source. I'm too big.
Speaker 1: It is amazing to watch you lie down in a
Speaker 1: pit with like eight alligators and they don't bother you.
Speaker 1: They walk around you, they walk over you, they sit
Speaker 1: with you. Now do they like affection? Do they like
Speaker 1: to be I mean, there's one video of a little
Speaker 1: albino alligator. The guy is scratching its back. We just
Speaker 1: learn about that word, but they called this an albino lot.
Speaker 1: That's the name of the alligator has albinism. But okay,
Speaker 1: caught me up break and it's scratching him and the
Speaker 1: alligator's laughing. He's got a mouth white hope, So they're
Speaker 1: saying it's laughing. Do they like to be touched or
Speaker 1: would they rather not? Because I read that they're also
Speaker 1: sensitive around their head.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've got a gator namector that My friend Shanda
Speaker 3: was like this amazing ultra triathlete. She used to lay
Speaker 3: with hector on her lap for hours and she'd like
Speaker 3: rub his jaw muscles and his eyes would always just
Speaker 3: shut super slow like he was. If you look at
Speaker 3: the video. I tell that story, he's on my life.
Speaker 3: I talk about it. I rub his jowls, it's his
Speaker 3: jaw muscles and his eyes closed. As I mentioned Shandon,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remembered her or if he
Speaker 3: was just like, yeah, that's pretty good spot right there.
Speaker 1: But that's what's amazing. They look like there's an affection,
Speaker 1: and I know you really you say there's not, and
Speaker 1: that if I do something stupid. I mean, you had
Speaker 1: the chilling one that I didn't see till after a while.
Speaker 1: Was you in the show put your head inside the
Speaker 1: gator's mouth like a lot of times a day and
Speaker 1: you missed that bad stuff happened a couple of times.
Speaker 3: Correct, just got I'm failures, huh.
Speaker 1: But well, I just wanted to because the fact.
Speaker 3: That absolutely I used to be very I have a
Speaker 3: lot of respects for the Seminel tribe of Florida. I
Speaker 3: knew Chief James Billy is a front to mine, the
Speaker 3: former chiefess of the tribe. And I always thought, if
Speaker 3: you're going to do a wrestling show, you do the
Speaker 3: whole thing the Seminals did, and you put your head
Speaker 3: in the gator's mouth. It doesn't hurt the gator in
Speaker 3: any way whatever. But at Holiday Park. Holiday Park, we
Speaker 3: do sometimes ten twelve, fifteen shows a day, so you
Speaker 3: jamming ahead in the gator's mouth fifteen times a day.
Speaker 3: Every once in a while, you touch something, and I'll
Speaker 3: tell you of all the ones, Casper, he's going to
Speaker 3: be like super mellow. Yeah, he's He was the one.
Speaker 3: I put my head in his mouth and I touched
Speaker 3: something and he grabbed it and held and then he
Speaker 3: went to crunch it and I heard something pop and
Speaker 3: I almost was laughing. I was like, that's either your
Speaker 3: tooth on my head and then he let me go,
Speaker 3: almost like sorry, dude, like and it was oly. I
Speaker 3: only had him about a year at that time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I remember just thinking what he had now was. I
Speaker 3: wasn't think I was gonna die. I was just thinking
Speaker 3: it's gonna pop. Obviously the pops, I'm dead right.
Speaker 1: That was.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that's some defense mechanism, but I
Speaker 3: was just like, it's gonna pop. But there was any fearity.
Speaker 1: They don't let go. What I read was when once
Speaker 1: they go to attack food, the don't let go. But
Speaker 1: he let go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's again, that's a wild gator that has that mentality.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think he crunched once, crunched twice. It was like,
Speaker 3: oh wait, that's that dude, that's that guy. That's the
Speaker 3: guy that's always in here. Like, I get it, and
Speaker 3: I just sat in his back for you know, five
Speaker 3: or seven minutes telling jokes, so it's he knows it's
Speaker 3: me at that point.
Speaker 1: None ever surprised you to the point where you went, Wow,
Speaker 1: I really haven't seen that before. That's an unusual behavior.
Speaker 3: In a wild gater. Yeah, I've some stuff that I've
Speaker 3: seen her gator breach before, like a dolphin like swim
Speaker 3: like and then come out of the water, And I
Speaker 3: was like, didn't never, never heard about that in my life.
Speaker 3: He just got scared. He got scared. I was trying
Speaker 3: to catch him. I went to put the noose on him.
Speaker 3: He wiggled out of it, and then as he took off,
Speaker 3: he just went straight up. And when I surfaced, this
Speaker 3: guy was vertical. This guy was like flying.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: He was just trying to escape and went up and
Speaker 3: when he got in the air just kind of played
Speaker 3: out and splashed down like a belly flop. It was amazing.
Speaker 5: So have you seen the video that Peter was talking
Speaker 5: about about this gentleman what's his name?
Speaker 1: It's Wally and and.
Speaker 5: The alligator is Wally, but it's he has certified it
Speaker 5: as an emotional support game. Jose and he there's videos
Speaker 5: of him taking it to a local swimming pool where
Speaker 5: the gators in the pool with kids, they're all swimming around.
Speaker 1: He opens his mouth.
Speaker 5: Both his his owner and the kids are are petting
Speaker 5: his tongue and as you say that, that's usually a
Speaker 5: cue for there's something in my mouth, I should eat it. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but is he set you can condition is it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's he's been conditioned not to do that, like
Speaker 3: if you I'm That's why all the all the Zigfried
Speaker 3: and Roy stuff comes up. People say that stuff about,
Speaker 3: oh remember this happened, that happened, Yeah, but all the
Speaker 3: other dozens more than where it didn't happen. It's about
Speaker 3: the guy knowing his animal. Like like I said, I've
Speaker 3: got fifteen or twenty that I can't do that stuff with.
Speaker 3: I know I can't do that with those animals, so
Speaker 3: I'm not going to try it.
Speaker 5: Do you have any feelings one way or the other
Speaker 5: about the notion of an emotional support alligator in general?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's fine. It's like I said one
Speaker 3: of my videos, I said, the best demoketers that they
Speaker 3: don't love you back like you can you love all
Speaker 3: them all you want if if he he'll never let
Speaker 3: you down because you don't expect anything from him, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. So, but yeah, I think that's fine.
Speaker 1: What happens you see people of golf course, what I've
Speaker 1: read and what I've seen is they have explosive speed
Speaker 1: for short distances thirty or forty feet. The thing can
Speaker 1: outrun a human. Correct. What happens if you I.
Speaker 3: Mean, they're not gonna if you're if you're ready for it,
Speaker 3: you could probably out sprint them. But if you're just
Speaker 3: he comes out of the side, Yeah, you're you're not
Speaker 3: gonna have time to even react.
Speaker 1: So how do you any tip for if you're out
Speaker 1: there and you encounter an alligator crocodile that's coming after you,
Speaker 1: and you can't get away.
Speaker 3: It's too late at that point, it's not going to
Speaker 3: They're not going to come after you. They just don't.
Speaker 3: It's very rare they do that.
Speaker 5: The gators that you've more or less the lack of
Speaker 5: a little word, domesticated, could they go back into the
Speaker 5: wild and be just fine? Oh yeah, no problem. Their
Speaker 5: their natural behaviors would come right back.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So do you get pushback ball? Because I know
Speaker 1: you love these animals that you don't lease them back.
Speaker 1: Does anybody? Does anybody give you anything?
Speaker 3: You can't. You can't release them. I wish I could,
Speaker 3: that would be my goal. But by law, by Florida
Speaker 3: state law, any nuisance alligator that is over four feet
Speaker 3: in length has to be killed to kept in captivity.
Speaker 3: As a trapper, you are essentially paid with the meat
Speaker 3: and the height of the alligator. You don't get paid
Speaker 3: by the state to catch them, get like a stipe
Speaker 3: into like thirty or fifty bucks, I think, but you
Speaker 3: don't really get paid for it. It's like so if
Speaker 3: you don't catch an alligator, you don't get anything at all,
Speaker 3: because you want to. They All the guys that I
Speaker 3: know are trappers. They harvest them, so they kill them.
Speaker 3: They sell the hide and sell the meat that get
Speaker 3: is probably worth two or three hundred bucks. An eight
Speaker 3: foot gator like Jesus worth of bucks to me, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean, Like you're gonna get it. Can
Speaker 3: sit in your lap and chill out.
Speaker 1: Like now you can tell that you love them, you
Speaker 1: really love them.
Speaker 3: Thee I do. I hate I hate traffic I hate
Speaker 3: what they do every day. I just hate dead gators
Speaker 3: more like I always want to give it up that
Speaker 3: I can't stand it. They belong there. It's not that
Speaker 3: hard to coexist with them. Don't swim in the canals.
Speaker 5: Like go to the beach and what is just forever
Speaker 5: our audience does? What is sort of the mission of
Speaker 5: your facility? I know you're trying to rescue, but you're
Speaker 5: also showcasing them, so is there a mission statement behind it?
Speaker 3: For me, it's more like just showing they're not these
Speaker 3: mandating killers and everything's the other They're not just out
Speaker 3: to get you.
Speaker 1: It's really fascinating to see because you've misjudged what these
Speaker 1: animals are. I mean, you really have a preconceived notion
Speaker 1: and then you watch this and you go, gee, pretty
Speaker 1: amazing that these dinosaurs who haven't evolved in ten thousand
Speaker 1: years because they're so efficient, have a whole other side
Speaker 1: to them which is not apparent. Paul, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, safe, Yeah, that's not really my thing, but thanks,
Speaker 3: thank you. We'll talk to you guys. God bless you.
Speaker 1: First of all, what a really lovely guy.
Speaker 5: You don't think that a person who is doing this
Speaker 5: is going to be have quite that heart. I mean
Speaker 5: it really seems like a lovely, genuine and you get
Speaker 5: that from watching the videos.
Speaker 1: That part of it is, for sure. The other part
Speaker 1: of it is he respects, he cares about these animals.
Speaker 1: He really really cares. And that was a big part
Speaker 1: of this for me. It wasn't just the I'm fascinated
Speaker 1: by the videos, and it was that I misjudged the
Speaker 1: animal because it's ugly, it's not cute, And so I
Speaker 1: looked up a couple of studies and you check out
Speaker 1: the boxes and you see what the key thing is
Speaker 1: that makes you feel related to that animal in a sentience,
Speaker 1: so you can say it's smartest. Isn't that? It came
Speaker 1: down to that. The qualis dolphins, all the cute species,
Speaker 1: cute one over as far as sentience didn't matter, danger
Speaker 1: or whatever. It's about. Cute is if they're.
Speaker 5: It's deceptive because koalas can be little lass they can
Speaker 5: they can mess with you.
Speaker 1: They can koala will slap you around when if you
Speaker 1: if you've been in a room, if you have a
Speaker 1: bad experience with the kuala, you were trying to read,
Speaker 1: and the thing was, how do you know all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, I'm with Jason.
Speaker 4: The kangaroos are a little less kangaroos they are, so
Speaker 4: we then rank animals, not by intelligence, not by feeling beauty.
Speaker 1: Specism is the way we do it. If you've got
Speaker 1: big eyes and you're looking at it, give you go,
Speaker 1: you're gonna rip my face off. Oh you're so you
Speaker 1: rank higher, we treat you better. And that was an
Speaker 1: eye opener for me because I had no idea that
Speaker 1: an animal that was that scared, that ugly, that reptilion,
Speaker 1: that dinosauric, if there's a word prehistory could do the
Speaker 1: stuff that these the one that you feel tender towards it,
Speaker 1: and they do you feel like I was thinking, not tender,
Speaker 1: but I'm thinking about how wrong I was. When you
Speaker 1: see that they call alligator. They're all in the pit
Speaker 1: and he starts going, Leonard, it's time for dinner, and
Speaker 1: the thing comes out, walks over, opens the mouth. Heach's
Speaker 1: not yet, ye pushes it down. Okay now, and the
Speaker 1: scene opens the mouth. Tommy. My wife is sitting there
Speaker 1: looking at me like I'm an idiot, until she saw
Speaker 1: the one where they're all lined up in a row
Speaker 1: waiting and he's calling the names and they're opening. Then
Speaker 1: she goes she Actually that's the one when James Bunn
Speaker 1: runs across the across the he actually actually went ah.
Speaker 1: So because you don't understand that behavior. Right until I
Speaker 1: saw these, I had no idea. David Google line, Hello, Hello, Hello,
Speaker 1: Hello sir.
Speaker 6: Well that was an interesting experience with all the different
Speaker 6: alligator antics you could do in the great State of Florida.
Speaker 1: Of course, that's that's where I'm living. Yes, you live
Speaker 1: Alligator Alley. You can probably throw a rocket hit one
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 6: Actually I could go about about ten minutes from here.
Speaker 6: I know I can find an alligator run in the
Speaker 6: wild right there. But there are so many crazy different
Speaker 6: things in Florida that you could do. You know, we
Speaker 6: have Orlando here, we have the Everglades obviously where where
Speaker 6: Paul is. I wanted to give you a little bit
Speaker 6: of a game. Can you do this in Florida? So
Speaker 6: you have to get like this, whether you can or
Speaker 6: you cannot do that.
Speaker 1: Anything you can't do it should be wide up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, leg isn't even legal. It's just like out there
Speaker 3: and do it.
Speaker 6: Can you bear back ride a water buffalo?
Speaker 1: Water buffalo in Florida?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna it's not indigenous.
Speaker 1: This is how I think Florida is for free school
Speaker 1: where they have let's yes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, absolutely not, that's ridiculous.
Speaker 6: Let's see. Can you see mermaids swimming as you die?
Speaker 3: Pa?
Speaker 6: Yes, of course the famous wiki watchy Florida doing that. Yes,
Speaker 6: I've been doing it since the nineteen forties and they're
Speaker 6: still doing it. Can you swim with the dead?
Speaker 1: Swim with the dead?
Speaker 3: Swim with the dead?
Speaker 1: I need a little bit more so, you mean like
Speaker 1: Jerry Garcia or actual corpses.
Speaker 5: What do you I don't think I don't think you
Speaker 5: can swim with the dead.
Speaker 1: I really don't think that that. Are they recently dead?
Speaker 1: Give me some contact? Yeah? Relative, Okay, So if my
Speaker 1: old and I can swim with the dead, yes, I'm
Speaker 1: saying no, but it's got to be. Yes, there's something
Speaker 1: we don't know.
Speaker 6: It's called the Neptune Memorial Refits off of Key Biscayne, Florida,
Speaker 6: And it's basically, uh, they've manufactured gates, and there's lions
Speaker 6: and and there's roads, and you you could put your
Speaker 6: cremated relatives in this cemetery, this underwater cemetery, and you
Speaker 6: could go scuba diving among and and have time with
Speaker 6: your deceased loved ones.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't want to do action. I want to
Speaker 1: do it like we get at Bernie's where you can
Speaker 1: actually take him in before you do the ashes. No.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Can you visit the oldest city in the United States?
Speaker 1: The oldest city in the United States? Why would that be?
Speaker 1: He's going to say no, and then we'll find out
Speaker 1: where the oldest city is where he is in Florida. No,
Speaker 1: the oldest city is probably not in Florida's a trick question.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to anticipate David, and he's smirking, so he's
Speaker 1: got a good deal.
Speaker 5: Oh are we talking about, like maybe it's an indigenous city,
Speaker 5: something that the indigenous people.
Speaker 1: But I bet it's not in Florida. Is I'm guessing?
Speaker 1: Quick question? All right? Fine, No, incorrect, because the oldest
Speaker 1: city is here. You go see.
Speaker 6: The oldest city is Saint Augustine. It was founded in
Speaker 6: fifteen sixty five. It is the longest continually inhabited city
Speaker 6: in the in the United States.
Speaker 1: Let's see.
Speaker 6: Can you go under I'll just do a couple more.
Speaker 6: Can you go underground and explore caverns?
Speaker 1: Yes? In Florida. Well, no, wait, I know there's Crystal Cave.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's that's up north.
Speaker 5: That's like, I don't think so thieves in Florida mountains.
Speaker 1: No, no, no caving.
Speaker 6: We don't have basements, but we do have caverns. It's
Speaker 6: actually in the Panhandle, which is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: This one. That was a bit of a trick question. Wow,
Speaker 1: last one, last one.
Speaker 6: Can you see the second tallest statue in the continuous
Speaker 6: United States?
Speaker 5: That's a very specific Why would that be a no,
Speaker 5: why would you even ask that question?
Speaker 1: And could you see it from a cavern? Yes, you
Speaker 1: can see the second tallest cat. You can see it.
Speaker 3: You can see.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's called the Dragon and the Pegasus. They're fighting
Speaker 6: it out and it is the uh. I believe the
Speaker 6: Pegasus part is the second tallest, only to.
Speaker 1: The Statue of Liberty.
Speaker 6: It's in the Hollandale Beach, Florida.
Speaker 5: Well, I gotta tell you this has made me one
Speaker 5: of the book state wide tour of the Great State
Speaker 5: of Florida.
Speaker 1: With the relative's ashes. So you can do that anybody's
Speaker 1: and go to Cabrea.
Speaker 5: I'll petta Gator, I'll go on to counter, go to Orlando,
Speaker 5: I'll go to the second happiest place.
Speaker 1: On By the way, the only place that I ever
Speaker 1: saw gator in the wild actually was in college. My
Speaker 1: buddy and I drove to Florida NonStop and we went
Speaker 1: to the Everglades where there were bugs bigger than your
Speaker 1: head and I had to pee, and I went to
Speaker 1: the side of the road to pee, and I got
Speaker 1: my schmenckel out and I'm peeing and I see this
Speaker 1: and I run, I run, like you can't believe. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's right there. It's it's there. And we didn't get
Speaker 1: into it with Paul, but they can extend their mouth
Speaker 1: ninety percent.
Speaker 5: Like, straight up, are you saying that that's what the
Speaker 5: alligator would have happen?
Speaker 1: Comic, Look, I knew you were going there. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: maybe he was anticipating. Maybe it's like, well, yeah, he was.
Speaker 5: Only forty degrees, but I think this guy needs.
Speaker 1: A full ninety. He had the one I closed. He
Speaker 1: was doing the ocular or whatever they But yeah, it
Speaker 1: was like right there, and I thought, I'm not in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia anymore. This is a whole different it's a different world.
Speaker 5: But you know the reason I'm less than you know
Speaker 5: forthcoming about to Florida is my parents. We would go
Speaker 5: down every winter for you know, winter break, and uh,
Speaker 5: I was five years old.
Speaker 1: I've never seen the Ocean's my first trip to Florida.
Speaker 5: So we spent three days driving down, stopped at South
Speaker 5: of the Border, stayed there over tonight. Right yeah, but
Speaker 5: there's Miami, staying at the Fountain little hotel where my
Speaker 5: parents met.
Speaker 1: First morning up, have a little breakfast.
Speaker 5: Then my mother goes, there's the ocean, sweetheart, run down,
Speaker 5: go put your foot in the ocean.
Speaker 1: And I run down the beach and I step on
Speaker 1: a man o war.
Speaker 5: And I get a sting like you can't believe, and
Speaker 5: I've got the car to go on. I'm like, F Florida,
Speaker 5: F the ocean, F preachers, F everything.
Speaker 1: And that's one more thing you can do in Florida.
Speaker 1: That's right there. You go at it to David's list. David,
Speaker 1: thank you, nice to see you, sir, Thank everybody for
Speaker 1: listening and watching. And Lauren producer law, thank you for
Speaker 1: doing the show. Indeed, and we will see you next time.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna got.
Speaker 3: Help.
Speaker 1: Why really?
Speaker 2: As another episode of really No Really comes to a close,
Speaker 2: I know you're wondering, is death by alligator attack common
Speaker 2: in the United States. Well, you know that won't be
Speaker 2: a one word answer, but first let's thank our guest,
Speaker 2: Paul Badard. You can follow Paul on Instagram at Gator
Speaker 2: Boys Alligator Rescue. On Facebook he is at Gator Boys Paul,
Speaker 2: and on Instagram he is at Gator Boys seven. You
Speaker 2: can also check out his work adventures at his website,
Speaker 2: Everglades Holiday Park dot com. Find all pertinent links in
Speaker 2: our show notes, our little show hangs out on Instagram,
Speaker 2: TikTok YouTube, and threads at really No Really podcast And
Speaker 2: of course you can share your thoughts and feedback with
Speaker 2: us online at reallynoreally dot com. If you have a
Speaker 2: really some amazing factor story that boggles your mind, share
Speaker 2: it with us and if we use it, we will
Speaker 2: send you a little gift. Life changing obviously, but it's
Speaker 2: the thought that counts. Check out our full episodes on YouTube,
Speaker 2: hit that subscribe button and take that bell. So here
Speaker 2: updated when we release new videos and episodes, which we
Speaker 2: do each Tuesday, So listen and follow us on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: And now the answer to the question is death by
Speaker 2: alligator common in the United States well.
Speaker 1: According to Wikipedia, there.
Speaker 2: Have been nine fatal alligator attacks on humans in the
Speaker 2: twenty twenties alone, and these attacks share some surprising commonalities.
Speaker 2: Four occurred in Florida, four in South Carolina, and one
Speaker 2: in Louisiana. One was a forty one year old woman,
Speaker 2: and another was a forty seven year old man, but
Speaker 2: the rest were between the ages of fifty eight and
Speaker 2: eighty eight, and the vast majority were over sixty five.
Speaker 2: Six of the nine victims were women. Two victims were
Speaker 2: killed while walking their dog, three fell into ponds near
Speaker 2: their home, three were killed on a golf course, with
Speaker 2: one victim attacked while retrieving items from a lake at night.
Speaker 2: So here's a ps from everyone here at really know, really,
Speaker 2: which we really didn't think we'd have to make. If
Speaker 2: you are an elderly man or woman living in the
Speaker 2: Deep South, you know the place where all the alligator
Speaker 2: attacks happen, and you are walking at night and drop
Speaker 2: your phone in a lake, maybe just let the alligators
Speaker 2: have your phone.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know you love listening to our show
Speaker 1: that Hey
Speaker 2: Sonder the gators Really No Really is a production of
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio and Blase entertainment,