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Article: Once popular in Florida, alligator wrestlers now on endangered list.
- Article from:
- South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
- Article date:
- May 15, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinal. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Kathleen Kernicky
May 15--At Everglades Holiday Park, on the western edge of U.S. 27, Daniel Fontaine tends to his nine gators and waits for the tourists to arrive.
Fontaine makes a living wrestling alligators, a job he describes as part stuntman, part showman. He demonstrates by dragging a 10-footer named Seven Toes out of the water by its tail. He taps a smaller gator named Bobber on the nose until it opens its wide jaws and shows its teeth, a move wrestlers call a "Florida smile."
In their heyday, alligator wrestlers could earn $1,000 a week in tips.
"I did a show the other day, 19 people. I made $3," said Fontaine, who ...