Wiregrass Alligator Wrangler Loves the Wild Life

Stillness and darkness surround the 14-foot aluminum john boat, disturbed only by croaking frogs and the occasional splash of a catfish.
But Burks Laney can see and hear more.
He sees the red eyes staring at him, watching as he invades their watery home. The fish are biting in the lake, but unfortunately a larger creature has been biting the fish. And when the paths of alligators and people meet in the Wiregrass, Laney is the man the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Game and Fish Division calls.
Laney is the area's alligator nuisance control hunter, as evidenced by the green sign on his red pickup truck. Each year, he captures an average of 60 alligators, mostly in the months of April through June in southeast Alabama.
Alligators may be associated more with the state of Florida, but they aren't exactly an uncommon sight in Alabama creeks, rivers and swamps.
Laney caught a 10-foot, 400-pound alligator that had killed two calves recently near the Geneva and Houston county line. Five alligators were captured in one trip to a Cottonwood spring, and he came back from a trip to Columbia with a 12-foot, 700-pounder.
Retired orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Haley and wife Rebecca said while their son Chad was feeding their horses, he saw a 6-foot alligator in a pond on their land in the Ardilla community.
The alligator has killed a couple of black swans, two geese, a white duck and a couple of mallard ducks. The Haleys have kept their two golden retrievers in a pen until the animal is caught.
"Our grandchildren come out to visit us from time to time, so this really scares us," Haley said. "He's a nuisance, but I'm awful proud there's somebody around to help us."
Laney has set some snares and traps in hopes of catching the culprit.
"All these big gators now are the ones that hatched out while they were protected as an endangered species," said Laney, who was appropriately wearing a Florida Gators cap as he worked on rebuilding his Taylor taxidermy shop. The shop burned to the ground March 26, along with a freezer stocked with gator bait and more than 171 stuffed animal heads.
He's dividing his attention today between his shop and the night's trip to Elamville and Abbeville, where he would catch two alligators. One of the gators, an 8-footer, was caught in a family's yard in Abbeville.
When the conservation officer receives a nuisance report of an alligator, he issues a permit to Laney to capture the animal. The conservation officer then decides if the alligator will be relocated or killed. The larger alligators are usually destroyed because they will most likely just return to the area where they were caught, Laney said.
After making the capture, the alligator hunter completes a report that describes where the animal was caught. Laney keeps one copy and sends the other copy to Montgomery.
"It's not a real job, and most people wouldn't have it because you can't make any money," he said. "But I get to meet all kinds of people, and most of them are law-abiding, upstanding people."
To catch an alligator, Laney might use steel traps, snare traps or a harpoon with basically any type of bait, such as deer meat, squirrel, crow, rabbit and even road kill.
"There are all kinds of ways you can catch them," he said. "It depends on the circumstances."
The most humane way, he said, is by throwing 4-by-4-by-8-foot cages into the water.
As the area's alligator nuisance control hunter, Laney must have a yellow tag for each alligator he captures. He's also responsible for picking up any alligators killed by poachers or automobiles.
Laney was born on Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River and has hunted and fished since the age of 8. He's been the area alligator nuisance control hunter since 1991.
He said alligators want no part of human beings unless they've been conditioned to think otherwise by being fed.
But Rambler, Laney's small 13-year-old black terrier, knows the alligators in his yard could see him as dinner. He barks incessantly at the small 5-foot alligator Laney has captured, but keeps his distance from the larger one.
"He's terrified of the big alligators," Laney said. "He respects them. He knows they'll get him."
Although Laney has caught literally hundreds of alligators, only one has bitten him. A 9-foot, 7-inch, 174-pounder that he caught in Bellwood chomped on his arm last June. The large gator, which was bound in Laney's yard, freed his jaws, leaving Laney with a wound that required 20 stitches.
A 288-pound gator also busted the back window of his pickup truck.
"Alligators won't bite you unless they have to, but if they do, they won't turn loose," Laney said. "They'll start rolling and tear your arm off. We had to shoot this one to get him loose. The only reason I didn't lose my arm was I didn't move.
"But they're not aggressive. They won't come up and try to bite people or jump on the boat. But if you hem him up and get close to him, he'll bite you. One thing we tell kids is there aren't any animals in our area that are dangerous if you leave them alone."