# Quarter-century-old dog tag among items found in 12-foot SC gator’s belly



## Leeda.the.Paladin (Apr 10, 2021)

Quarter-century-old dog tag among items found in 12-foot SC gator’s belly​​





Cordray's of Ravenel said they found five dog tags, a bullet jacket, a spark plug, loads of turtle shells, and several bobcat claws inside in the 12-foot, 445-pound alligator's stomach. (Source: Kenneth Cordray) 
By Patrick Phillips | April 9, 2021 at 1:50 PM CDT - Updated April 10 at 5:44 AM 
RAVENEL, S.C. (WCSC) - The owner of a Ravenel butcher and taxidermy shop says his team found five dog tags, a shell casing, turtle shells and even a spark plug inside the stomach of a 12-foot alligator killed by a Lowcountry hunter.




Hunter Ned McNeely, who owns the property in the Adams Run area where the alligator was found, brought the 12-foot long, 445-pound animal to Cordray's butcher and taxidermy shop in Ravenel. (Source: Kenneth Cordray)

Some of the dog tags were still readable, so Cordray called one of the numbers.




Five dog tags, a bullet casing and a spark plug were among the contents found in the alligator's stomach. (Source: Kenneth Cordray) 
“I talked to him and he was an older gentleman and he said that he had a lease down on the other side of the river from where the gator was killed, 24 years ago,” he said. Cordray said with so many gators down there, a dog would come up missing. “And that’s what they always figured is the dogs got eaten by the gators,” he said.

“I’ve always known alligators will take a dog if they get the chance,” McNeely said. “But how does the spark plug get in there?”
Both McNeely and Cordray said it’s difficult to estimate the alligator’s age. McNeely called it “an old man.”

“They grow according to their habitat and their food supply and their population,” Cordray said. “But, I mean, he’s up there because he was big enough to eat [full grown hunting dogs] 25 years ago.”
He said he estimates the kind of dog the man described would have weighed about 80 pounds or so.

Cordray said his team will process the alligator meat into steaks, summer sausage and jerky, which takes about a week; and then will make a mount of the gator’s skin, a process that takes about nine months.
He said in his 10 to 15 years of hunting alligators, this one was the biggest he has killed so far.
“I had to shoot it a couple of times, and I had to get a bunch of ropes and hooks and kayaks and a tractor with a chain to finally get it out of the canal, because it was in probably an eight to nine-foot canal,” he said.
McNeely said he’s still deciding what to do with the gator.

“My wife is upset with me,” he said, “because I’m talking about doing a full mount, or I might do a rug mount. I haven’t decided just yet.”

But he joked that his wife was “having discussions” with him about the plan.
_Copyright 2021 WCSC. All rights reserved._


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## GGsKin (Apr 10, 2021)

Aww poor alligator. Just living his wild gator life. What a way to go.


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## winterinatl (Apr 10, 2021)

GGsKin said:


> Aww poor alligator. Just living his wild gator life. What a way to go.


Well, sounds like he lived a long life. Chowing down on dogs and whatnot. I’m glad the hunter will USE him and didn’t just kill it for display. Still sad such an old animal was killed.


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## Kanky (Apr 13, 2021)

Fido has been avenged!


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## nysister (Apr 25, 2021)

I feel bad for the dogs, but goodness those folks love killing. No heart.


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## sweetlaughter (May 15, 2021)

Omg why did I think dog tags as in military issued dog tags. I was thinking this gator ate FIVE people?! I didn’t realize they meant actual dogs until the article said they called the number on the tag.


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## kcbelle925 (May 15, 2021)

sweetlaughter said:


> Omg why did I think dog tags as in military issued dog tags. I was thinking this gator ate FIVE people?! I didn’t realize they meant actual dogs until the article said they called the number on the tag.


I initially thought the same thing. Lol


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