East Texas cowboys rope alligator threatening livestock

HAWKINS, Texas - An East Texas man had no time to wait for authorities to remove a 10-foot alligator when it threatened his livestock.

Hal Conover says he had to think quickly when the prehistoric creature wandered onto his land near Hawkins, Texas.

“He was a dangerous one,” Conover told FOX 4. “But he was leaving the place — dead or alive.”

In typical East Texas fashion, Conover decided to round up a group of friends to rope the alligator away from his calves.

While one friend recorded, Conover and his other friends secured the reptile until the professionals came to take it away. But it even put up a fight for the experts.

Video shows one of the wranglers was actually bitten by the animal, but Conover assures it was only a flesh wound.

The alligator was loaded up into a trailer alive and relocated to Gator Farms in Grand Saline.

“[The wrangler] was lucky,” Conover said. “But what great memories.”