One of two men charged with killing an alligator in Richmond County and leaving its butchered carcass in a pond behind Brown Feed & Seed in Evans will pay $1,350 in fines and serve 160 hours of community service.
On Aug. 23, workers at Brown Feed & Seed found the remains of a large alligator in a pond behind the store off Washington Road, where a 9-foot gator has been living for several years. It was presumed to be the pond's resident gator. Wildlife authorities later determined that gator was still alive - and a similarly large one killed illegally in Richmond County had been dumped there after its head, claws and tail were removed.
Bobby Charles Jones, 51, of Columbia County, was charged with two misdemeanors - hunting out of season and possession of illegally taken wildlife.
According to the Richmond County State Court Solicitor's Office, Mr. Jones received 12 months' probation on both counts, fines and surcharges totaling $1,350, and was ordered to perform 160 hours of community service at an animal shelter .
Mr. Jones was also ordered to stay away from the private property where the alligator was killed.
A second suspect, 65-year-old Luther Godowns, also of Columbia County, is believed to have assisted in butchering the gator and dumping its remains, according to law enforcement officers with Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division. He was charged in Columbia County with two misdemeanors: possession of illegally taken wildlife and "dumping of egregious litter."
His case is scheduled for Oct. 28 in Columbia County Probate Court.
Georgia's alligator population is estimated at about 200,000. The state Natural Resources Board created a hunting season for alligators five years ago, with a limited number of permits offered through a highly competitive lottery. More than 5,000 applications were received last year for the 550 available tags.
This year, the number of permits was increased to 700, and they were awarded for the 2009 season, which ran from Sept. 5 to Oct. 4.
Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
An alligator murderer at an animal shelter? Isn't that like having a pedophile work at an orphanage? How will Jones be able to resist all of those caged snakes and llamas and all? And why no picture? How are we, as a community, supposed to protect our pet 'gators from these vicious slaughters and butchers if we can't identify them? What's our society coming to?
hey mate how can anyone kill wild life out of season without losing his license....poaching is poaching...who does he know mate ...maybe he ought to move to the out back....question did they ever find the tail and feet
Yeah, working at an animal shelter. That makes NO SENSE!
It would have been better to sentence him to a couple years of working with PETA.
I hope a bigakk pit bull bites him.
I think he should be required to swim in a pond or stay in a pond loaded with alligators for 160 hours.....But he needs to do when when the weather is warmer than what it is now. They are to docile now and slow moving right now with it being cooler
I guess I'm in the minority here. I think it is quite fitting to have him serve at an animal shelter. Then he can see firsthand all the sweet dogs and cats, with no home, and totally defenseless like the gator he killed was. He can hopefully realize that an animal is an animal, regardless of species.
They all deserve to live! I'm sure the judge knew what he/she was doing when handing it down. I would not compare this, with a pedophile working with kids. I don't think he has a mindset to just kill animals, he wanted the gator meat and more than likely didn't see it as being a big deal. And bet, he will be closely supervised there..
He wanted the meat? Then why, pommon, did he leave the carcass behind? He only wanted the feet and head for trophies, not to feed a starving family. However, making him serve the community service time at the animal shelter is a good move; unfortunately, I doubt this will teach him anything because he seems to have no heart for the living.
I am assuming they ate the meat mable is what i'm saying.. Did not make it right at all, but am sure that's why they did it. The carcass was just that, bones and muscle, so of course they didn't want that. I'm going to stay optimistic and hope working around the animal's will open his eyes..
Then again, he's so old, he's probably way to set in his old man ways:(
Pommom, he's 51 freaking years old, not a kid. He already knows about dogs and cats. He is going to hate every minute, because all they will have him do is clean cages. I want to amend what I said. I hope TWO big akk pit bulls bite him.
Maybe that is why the judge sentenced him to it.. Knows he will despise every last minute of it! They better have someone watching, if he's a bitter old man, he may be mean to those animals and they don't need that.. Like I said, to old and set in his ways.. Oh well, save the optimism for someone worth it cause he sure as heck isn't..
Where was the alligator that was killed? Where was he living? Unless the man was starving then it was certainly WRONG to kill the gator. However i for one do not want an alligator ANYWHERE where small children can EASILY get to. If they are in populated areas they need to be rounded up by the wildlife authorities and moved to areas where children cannot easily wander into their domain..is this not common sense?
I think he is just a racist and the 'gator was a substitute for a black man.........I just wanted to beat Justus4 to making this story about race.....
Alligators live in water. Any small child that wanders into alligator domain is at far greater risk of drowning. And they are in more danger of getting snakebit. Do you want to kill all the snakes, too?
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