Real Estate Tycoon Wrestles Alligator - Alligator Bites Real Estate Tycoon

[matcom]

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LABELLE, Fla. -- Ronald Bergeron wanted to put on a show when he came across a nearly 8-foot alligator while giving guests a tour of his private nature preserve. The alligator had another idea.

Bergeron, a South Florida real estate tycoon, was bit on the hand while trying to wrestle the animal and dragged into water 15-feet deep Sunday.

Those who witnessed the event spent the weekend at the 5,000-plus-acres by donating $10,000 to the Boys and Girls Club.

"Couples donate a lot of money to charities for the weekend and I always tell them I'm going to wrestle an alligator," Bergeron, 62, said Wednesday. "It's part of my Florida cracker culture. My grandfather was a game warden in the Everglades and I grew up around alligators."

Bergeron said he usually rides on the alligator's back for a minute and lets it go. He said he never harms the alligators.

"He was rolling and I couldn't keep control of his mouth," Bergeron said. "He grabbed my hand in his mouth."

Witnesses pulled the alligators tail and the animal let go of Bergeron.

He was taken to Cleveland Clinic in Weston with a shattered pinky, a broken ring finger and several puncture wounds in his palm.

"It's illegal to harass an animal in any way," said Dani Moschella, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

She said the incident has not been reported to the agency.

Will the run-in slow Bergeron down?

"I don't think so, too exciting," he said.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/9158015/detail.html