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An Alabama teenager celebrated her 17th birthday by hunting an alligator with a crossbow.
High-schooler Whitney Williams told her parents she wanted to take part in the unusual birthday activity when they asked her how she wanted to celebrate the occasion.
"My whole body was just nervous and shaking. I'm glad I didn't miss though," Williams told CBS. The teenager said she may use the animal's skin for a knife-holder or possibly boots. "The head I'm probably going to put it in my room," she added.
Williams' father, Chris, told CBS News that his daughter had been watching the U.S. alligator-hunting reality TV show Swamp People and decided she wanted to try it out. "She just kept on after me about it," he said.
There are an estimated 5 million American alligators spread out around the Southeastern U.S., according to the Defenders of Wildlife conservation group, and tens of thousands of are estimated to live in Alabama.
It’s not the typical response one gets when asking their daughter how she wants to celebrate her 17th birthday, but Covenant Christian High School junior Whitney Williams was ready with the answer. https://t.co/zD4mD4A0Yu
— TimesDaily Newspaper (@TimesDaily) August 29, 2022
In Alabama, as in other states such as Florida and Texas, people can apply for a permit to hunt and kill alligators.
Alabama rules state that there are a number of permitted methods of catching an alligator alive, including harpoons, bow and arrow, and hand-held snares. Once a reptile is caught, it must be hauled next to a boat or bank before it can be killed.
The 17-year-old Williams opted for the bow-and-arrow method. The teenager's parents recruited the help of experienced alligator hunters based in Florida, and on July 30, Williams and her dad went night-time hunting in a swamp.
The hunters used an alligator call to mimic the sound of gator hatchlings in order to attract adults.
Despite encountering one gator that jumped up and bit their boat, it was on the second night that Whitney captured one of the large reptiles.
The animal was shot twice with a bow before it was hauled close to the boat, at which point Whitney used a bang stick (a firearm-like device that fires ammunition from a metal chamber) to shoot the alligator in the head.
The 12 feet 6 inches reptile, estimated to weigh more than 500 pounds, ended up being too large to get into the boat, so it had to be dragged through the water. Eventually, five people were needed to get it into a truck.
Alligator hunting and farming can be big business for states that enable it. In Louisiana, the state economic impact from alligator use was estimated at between $60 million and $70 million per year, Inc. business magazine reported in 2014.
At the same time, critics such as the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida say that such activities are cruel with the potential for extended suffering on the part of the alligator and ineffective use of a bang stick.
