'Gator Whisperer' Goes to Jail

Kissing an alligator on the snout is dangerous in more than one way.

That’s the lesson a Miami Beach chiropractor learned recently when law enforcement officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrested him for harassing the creatures. The case unfolded when the commission’s officers received a tip about a man calling himself the “Gator Whisperer,” the agency explained on its Facebook page. The tipster told wildlife officers the man was offering others the “experience” of getting into the water with gators for the cool price of $250.

“Our undercover officers responded and witnessed the man getting in the water in the southern Everglades with a mask and fins and swimming with alligators,” the agency stated on its Facebook page. “He also had customers in the water with him, harassing alligators and endangering the public with his actions.”

As it turns out, Hal Kreitman’s escapades with alligators had also earned him some press earlier in October. The man’s “seduction” of gators was featured in a Miami New Times profile piece that ran Oct. 22. The paper chronicled one of Kreitman’s swims with the beasts during which he held his ground as two gators “blasted” towards him.

“That was the closest ever,” the paper quoted Kreitman as saying following the encounter.

While Kreitman’s arrest would come a few days after the piece was published, he seemed keenly aware that his actions were against the law when the New Times interviewed him. Upon hearing a car approach, he asked the reporter, if it was a cop.

Kreitman was arrested Oct. 29 on one charge of violating wildlife management rules and one felony count of killing, injuring or possessing an alligator or egg without authority, according to Monroe County Jail records. The 51-year-old is being held without bond on the felony charge.

While there are licenses available for people to possess and exhibit alligators, Kreitman did not have one, the state pointed out on its Facebook page.

“There are also permits for harvesting them in the wild at certain times,” the Facebook page stated. “However, interacting with them in this manner in the wild is considered harassment of a protected species, and it is illegal under Florida Statute.”

Photo Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Facebook Page

See Also:

• 765-Pound Monster Gator Bagged in Florida
• Monster Shrimp Bagged by Florida Fisherman
• Protesters: Gator Hunt is ‘State-Sponsored Animal Killing’
• Snooty the Manatee Death Rumors Debunked