OLD TOWN SPRING, Tex. – An alligator handler is recovering after a demonstration over the weekend went terribly wrong.
Will Sherrer said he was controlling the alligator during an educational demonstration Saturday when the animal attacked.
“Kind of surreal. I mean you don’t really think it’s happening,” Sherrer said. “And I got up, and you know I saw the puncture marks, so I knew I needed help.”
Sherrer, who remains hospitalized at the Memorial Hermann Texas Trauma Institute, said he knows what happened could have been much worse.
“He didn’t get my any main arteries, veins, or bones, he missed all those,” Sherrer said. “With 80 teeth coming at you, you are lucky that is didn’t strike one of those. I got pretty lucky on that part of it.
The 28-year-old has a biology degree and has worked at a variety of wildlife jobs around the country. He is now an intern now at Gator Country. The Beaumont facility has more than 400 alligators.
Sherrer was helping with a standard alligator show when he made a wrong move.
“I don’t have hard feelings toward the animal at all – it’s natural instinct for an animal to react like that,” Sherrer explained. “I look at it as being completely my fault. I made a wrong move and touched his foot.”
