Dog Thrown Off Bridge, Bitten by Gator Finds Home in Monmouth County

By CARLY BALDWIN (Patch Staff)

The pit bull thrown off a bridge and nearly eaten by an alligator in a Louisiana swamp earlier this year will soon have a new forever home. And it’s in New Jersey.

Dina Alborano, an Allentown resident, was selected to adopt the adult female pit bull, named — fittingly — “Ally Gator” by animal rescue workers in St. Charles Parish, Lousiana. Alborano was chosen out of about 20 applicants nationwide all eager to adopt after Ally Gator’s story garnered widespread attention, said Angie Robert, director of the St. Charles Parish Animal Shelter.

And what a story it is. On Sept. 20, someone threw the dog off a bridge on I-310 in St. Charles Parish, law enforcement said. The pup fell about 40 feet, according to Robert, but miraculously survived.

Ally landed in swamp water, where rescue workers say she was forced to swim for more than an hour before being attacked by an alligator. She was found with deep tooth marks in her back and side.

“The bite radius from top to bottom was about six inches, so this was a good-size alligator, I’m guessing about six feet,” Robert told Patch. “She was definitely dragged under the water for quite a while, because she was throwing up swamp water for a good week and a half.”

The bite mark showed tearing on the underside, indicating the dog had “obviously struggled to get away from the gator,” she said.

“She’d been swimming for about an hour,” continued Robert, who was at the scene when Ally was rescued. “And then she found a little patch of marsh where she wouldn’t have to swim anymore. And that’s when she started wailing.”

Ally was rescued after a state trooper pulled someone over on the bridge and happened to hear crying from down below. That’s Ally with volunteer Louisiana firefighter Eddie Simpson just seconds after he pulled her to safety.

Now at the St. Charles Animal Shelter, Ally is recooperating nicely, save for a skin rash that a vet is trying to determine the cause of. Once the rash is under control, she will be moved to her new forever-home in leafy Allentown.

Robert said Alborano was “without a doubt, the most qualified applicant.”

“We interviewed a lot of people who wanted her, and at the end of the day she was the best candidate. She knew about the breed, she has good vet records,” said Robert. “I am never sad to see a dog get a great home.”

Although, she added, “It’s not every day you see a dog thrown 40 feet and survive. It still baffles me how someone could do this.”

St. Charles Parish police are still actively looking for the perpetrators.