By Tina Nazerian
Houston Chronicle
CEDAR HILL, Texas — Swimming at Cedar Hill Park in Chambers County will be prohibited, officials said Monday, a day after a 13-year-old boy and his father were attacked by an alligator.
Fred Ruiz, a game warden with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said Monday that county and federal officials plan to erect signs warning park visitors of the swimming ban. He said he does not know when the signs will go up, and said the penalties for swimming at the park will be up to the county to decide.
“Chambers County is the alligator capital of Texas,” Ruiz, 46, said. “So there’s alligators all over the place, and it’s unrealistic, especially in a wildlife area like that, to get alligators out of there. I mean, that’s where they live.”
Authorities said a family was fishing Sunday when several members decided to enter the waist-deep water at Mac Pond. An alligator bit 13-year-old Kaleb Hurley on the arm and took him underwater near the bank of the pond, just off of Lake Charlotte Road. His father, 42-year-old James Hurley, also suffered an injury when he ran into the water to save his son.
The same alligator bit him on the leg, but he was able to kick it until it let him go. Kaleb’s grandfather had also gone in to help but was not injured.
The father and son were flown by Life Flight helicopter ambulance from Bayside Community Hospital to Memorial Hermann Hospital, according to authorities. A spokeswoman at that hospital said Monday the father and son were in fair condition.
Ruiz said such unprovoked attacks are rare.
“Most of the time, an alligator will just move away. Even if the human is there, they just tend to move away,” he said. “They don’t tend to attack unless they are cornered or provoked or hit, or something of that nature.”
He said alligators have been displaced because of the heavy rainfall of the last 45 days, which filled many estuaries. He also said the alligators are “hyper-vigilant” with protecting their territory because it is currently their breeding and nesting season.
“And then now you have human interaction,” the game warden said. “So, you know, you put all that together and that’s why you have this accident.”
Game wardens inspecting the site Monday could not find the gator - a task Ruiz called “the equivalent of a needle in a haystack.”
Ruiz said had authorities found the alligator, they would have relocated it to another swamp if it showed aggression.
“If we don’t have an animal that is acting in that way, in an aggressive manner, consistently attacking somebody, coming after somebody, you know those types of tendencies, then you know, it’s impossible to find that particular gator,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz called the father’s actions Sunday “very brave,” saying he has “a lot of respect” for what he did.
“It’s something that any father would do,” Ruiz said. “I would do the same thing in terms of defending your son.”
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