Man Sentenced for Attack on Alligator

LUDINGTON, Mich. – A man who attempted to kill a 4-foot alligator and abandoned it near a city park was sentenced Tuesday to 30 hours of community service and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

Brian Scott DeRooy, of Ludington, pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty in Mason County district court.

DeRooy, 37, said he attempted to dispatch the animal and did not mean to maim it.

"I put a hatchet in the back of the head of the alligator," he told Judge Peter Wadel. "I was watching it for some people and was moving and couldn’t take it with me. At the time I thought it was the right thing to do."

After attempting to kill the alligator on June 8, police said DeRooy dumped it behind an empty building near a Ludington park. A man walking his dog in a marshy area of the park later spotted the alligator. Animal control officers corralled it.

Wadel told DeRooy he should have called animal control.

The alligator survived the attack and was taken to a shelter in Traverse City.

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Information from: Ludington Daily News, http://www.ludingtondailynews.com