The state House of South Carolina just unanimously passed a bill increasing the penalties for hurting an alligator after a video went viral in 2020 of people sitting on top of one that was tied down before being euthanized.
The bill will now go to the Senate and if approved will, from the current fines of $100 to $150, increase to $500 to $1,000 for people who “feed, entice, or molest” an alligator in the state.
The alligator in the viral 2020 video was a nuisance gator removed from a pond near the Hilton Head Island mini-golf course for the safety of the property.
However, the process was handled improperly before they euthanized the beast, due to state policy, and swift action was taken in response to the video.
Why?
— Lou Lavandou (@LouLavandou) May 27, 2020
The Blue Planet Society posted the video of the incident at the time, calling it “animal abuse” and not acceptable. In another video, a man can be seen laying down on the back of the gator while the animal’s limbs were bound to its side.
“It was the biggest gator I’ve ever seen,” Daisy, who assisted in the capture of the gator, told The Island Packet.