Man jumps in pond, grabs eagle from alligator’s jaws

In a battle between America’s symbolic bird of prey and Florida man’s nemesis, a Parrish man said not on his watch.

A male bald eagle sat at the edge of a pond behind his home in the Copperstone subdivision when the alligator clamped its jaws on the bird Wednesday.

When David Anderson saw this he jumped into action, wading through a pond and prying the bald eagle from the alligator’s jaws.

“It’s our bald eagle. It’s our treasure,” Anderson, who is also going through chemotherapy, told Fox 13. “It stands for who we are and what we are.”

A neighbor called Justin Matthews of Matthews Wildlife Rescue and he arrived clad in a cowboy hat and camouflage cargo shorts.

The eagle’s legs were rendered useless and blood trickled from its throat.

“I knew that it wouldn’t make it,” Matthews told Fox 13.

Matthews then took the eagle to Save Our Seabirds, who then took him to a veterinarian in Osprey, according to Matthews’ Facebook post.

Unfortunately, the eagle had to be euthanized.

The wildlife rescuer said that Anderson is the reason the bird died peacefully, commending him for his efforts.

This story was originally published February 10, 2017 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Man jumps in pond, grabs eagle from alligator’s jaws."