Rowing club leader on Sugar Land alligator confrontations: 'We’ve never had an alligator attack'

Residents of a Houston suburb have grown weary of what they claim are a spate of alligator attacks, according to a report from Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.

KHOU reported that some people in Sugar Land have had their rowing boats targeted by “aggressive” alligators, with two damaged by the reptiles in the previous two weeks. Sugar Land is about 23 miles southwest of Houston.

According to the report, efforts are underway to trap the alligators before they harm any people. It’s unknown as to why the attacks are happening.

“I’ve been rowing over 20 years in this body of water and we’ve never had an alligator attack,” Greater Houston Rowing Club president Dee Connors told KHOU.

Connors added that the first alligator-related incident involved an elderly man.

“One day he hit the alligator with his oar,” she recounted to the station. “On the second day, the alligator chomped the end of his boat and his boat started sinking, but he made it to shore. He had to walk his boat about a mile, but nobody was hurt.”

Connors additionally told KHOU that another attack occurred in her vicinity.

“Another one of the rowers was just rowing out behind me and another one of the alligators chomped the end of his boat, he didn’t get it as hard as the first one so he was able to row it to shore,” she said.

Texas Parks & Wildlife (TPW) said on its website that while alligators are non-confrontational, they tend to become a “nuisance” and must be handled by the proper authorities.