The Adventures of James Dean, Florida wildlife trapper

[Bobby Wong]

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[Bobby Wong]

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[Bobby Wong]

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2013/5/8/trapper_bitten_by_da

Trapper bitten by dangerous coral snake
By News 13 Florida Brevard County
May 8, 2013 @8:27 PM

Brevard County wildlife trapper James Dean has been in this line of work for nearly twenty years. He knows the risk, especially dealing with snakes.
But one night, he had a close encounter that landed him in the hospital.

"There was a coral snake at the residence, and I got it out. Bagged it and moved it to the nearest wooded area," Dean said.

Tuesday night while on a call to roundup a coral snake in a residential pool, the snake fought back.

"In about 10 minutes, my hand started swelling up and I was getting ready to go back to my house to just lay down," Dean said.

But a concerned friend heard about what happened and met Dean at a nearby gas station off Eau Gallie Boulevard in Melbourne.

That's where that friend called 911, and within minutes an ambulance and police showed up. Dean was taken to the hospital.

Dean checked out before receiving any antivenom, which he admits was probably not a good idea. He says the snake's fangs were only in his hand for a few seconds.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, a coral snake's venom is North America's most potent snake venom. They have short fangs and a small mouth, and typically don't bother people unless provoked.

It's also rare to be bit by a coral snake. According to a 2002 FDA report, there are only about 25 coral snakebites a year, by some estimates.

James Dean, the trapper, is feeling fine now. He knows this can come with the territory, but he's glad he had help after he was bit.

"They were concerned for my well being, and I love them for it," Dean said.

[Bobby Wong]

https://i.imgur.com/tDaqNI1.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://i.imgur.com/O97RX2Z.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/news/2017/5/23/raccoon_removal_to_c

Confrontation leads to compromise on Brevard park raccoons
By News 13 Florida Brevard County
May 23, 2017 @8:52 PM

A confrontation led to a compromise Tuesday over attempts to trap raccoons at a beachfront park in Brevard County.

Trapper has been trying to remove raccoons from Lori Wilson Park
Some have been tampering with the traps, fearing the trapper will kill the animals
Trapper insists he doesn't kill the healthy raccoons

"This is totally getting out of hand," wildlife trapper James Dean said.

Dean is tasked to catch a slew of raccoons overrunning county-owned Lori Wilson Park in Cocoa Beach. On Tuesday, he found nine of his traps turned over or thrown over the boardwalk inside the Hammock Nature Trail.

The county says several people have been illegally feeding the raccoons, so they hired the trapper to remove them.

"These raccoons are going to be relocated if they are healthy, they are not going to be destroyed," insisted Dean.

On Tuesday, Dean was told a county employee encountered a man in the area that's currently closed off to the public. He says the man was argumentative during the confrontation.

That same man showed up moments after we spoke to Dean and expressed his concerns.

"These raccoons have been in here for years," the man, who wouldn't give his name, said.

"Now people are trying to trap them and kill them. And this one right here is the one that kills them," he added, talking about Dean.

But Dean wanted to clear the air -- and he offered the man a proposal.

"You can work with me. I'm tired of having to come and fix my traps," Dean told the man.

So they had a talk and came to an agreement. The man and others wouldn't tamper with the traps anymore, and he would tag along with the trapper on a raccoon release.

The man was given a written trespass warning by Cocoa Beach Police. He's not allowed in the park for the next two years.

Feeding of wildlife is a second degree misdemeanor, punishment is 60 days in jail and up to $500 fine.

[Bobby Wong]

https://i.imgur.com/HRpqX5U.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2019/01/14/red-tailed-hawks-attack-people-florida-hotel?fbclid=IwAR2hkNmQju43VfGqN45S5XajOKCcb2vx8py 8QDU3he4kyPGYcqgcZHzyn1k

Attacking Pair of Hawks Send More Than Dozen to Hospitals
By Greg Pallone
PUBLISHED 6:38 PM EST Jan. 14, 2019

VIERA, Fla. ? A pair of hawks attacking people in the parking lot of a Brevard County hotel have sent more than a dozen people to hospitals.

Hawks attack people in hotel parking lot, drawing blood in some instances
14 people sought treatment at hospital ? some needed multiple stitches
Professional trapper has destroyed nest; no eggs were found
Red-tailed hawks are federally protected but can be moved if needed
It's unknown why they are going after people, as no eggs have been found in the nest.

"I just swooped down and attacked my head," said Cyndi Mara, who last week was walking into her job at the Chick-Fil-A next door when she was attacked.

"(It) jarred me, and I looked up and saw a bird flying away," she said.

A red-tailed hawk had clawed the top of her head as she walked from the Holiday Inn parking lot.

"Wow, that hurts, and I went inside, touched my head, washed my hands, and they were bloody," Mara said.

Mara isn't the only person attacked by the breeding pair of hawks building a nest in a nearby tree. A wildlife trapper called in said 14 people were victims late last week.

They all went to a hospital. Mara didn't have to get stitches, but some of the others did, including one man who had to get 17.

"The Holiday Inn here, safety of their guests is their No. 1 priority," said James Dean with On Point Wildlife Removal. "And that's the reason we got on it quickly like we did."

The trapper destroyed the nest with the help of a fire department ladder truck. But Monday afternoon, there were at least one of the hawks still flying around nearby.

"I listen now when I'm walking to and from the car," Mara said.

The red-tailed hawks are protected under federal law, but the trapper said he has permission from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to capture, remove and release them into a wildlife conservation area.

[Bobby Wong]

https://i.imgur.com/HmOqLfT.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.clickorlando.com/strange-florida/400-pound-hog-captured-in-palm-bay-near-school-bus-stop?fbclid=IwAR3BG2hWKhwCazdrYlPiE5b0Mu57_jcTw3h1 fDJDF1cSQy6MEBdezLIBoeY

400-pound hog captured in Palm Bay near school bus stop
Florida trapper warns 'the hogs are runnin' due to cold weather, storms
By Rick Neale, Florida Today
Posted: 7:03 PM, December 17, 2018

https://i.imgur.com/1Ab5CxQ.jpg
A nearly 400-pound female hog was captured in Palm Bay Saturday. (Image: James Dean)

PALM BAY, Fla. - A "massive" female hog weighing nearly 400 pounds was captured by a team of dogs and trappers Saturday morning in Palm Bay, just west of the bustling intersection of Malabar and Minton roads.

The hefty Palm Bay sow had been prowling a wooded area near the Falls subdivision, Malabar Cove Apartments and Inspired Living at Palm Bay, an assisted-living facility, reports News 6 partner Florida Today.

"Very seldom do we ever run into hogs like this, that are so massive and so big," said Melbourne wildlife trapper James Dean.

About two weeks ago, Dean received a call reporting "a very large boar hog" that was tearing up sod around a playground, near a school bus stop. A nearby resident also sent him a nighttime photo of the great beast rooting behind a tree.

The animal in the photograph is so large that it resembles a bear.

"I took a deer trap out there. With the pig being that size, very seldom do you run into something that big. So what I did is, I used hurricane straps to strap that trap down ? but the pig would not go into the trap at all after about a week and a half," Dean said.

About 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Palm Bay police helped block traffic while Dean, four hunting dogs and four men converged on the scene. After releasing the hounds, he said the trained canines sniffed out and zeroed in on the colossal hog within 10 minutes.

The men captured and hogtied the hulking swine, then lugged her into a cage.

"A lot of the times when we run into calls like this, it's usually people who pen a hog up up in their backyard and grain-feed it, and then they'll go ahead and slaughter it. Because there's really not a substantial amount of woods for that hog to survive for the amount of time that it has," Dean said.

The hog was later euthanized, he said. Per Florida law, movement of feral swine is subject to licensing regulations.

Wild hogs are a non-native species that live in all 67 Florida counties, can reach 150 pounds or heavier and measure 5 to 6 feet long, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports.

The hog was the largest Dean has encountered since 2012. That 485-pound brute behind Melbourne Greyhound Park had been struck by two vehicles.

"They hit the hog and they totaled the vehicle out ? and the hog just got up and went right back into the woods," Dean recalled.

"We actually had to use a front-end loader to load him into the truck, once we got ahold of him," he said.

Dean warned residents that "the hogs are runnin'" across the Space Coast, citing the recent cold front and abundance of acorns falling from oak trees. He fielded a call about 4 a.m. Sunday reporting a driver who struck and killed a hog on Babcock Street near Grant-Valkaria.

The vehicle sustained extensive front-end damages. He estimated that pig weighed about 145 pounds.

[Bobby Wong]

https://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/2017/01/11/pit-bull-mauls-melbourne-wildlife-trappers-left-arm/96203870/

Pit bull mauls Melbourne wildlife trapper's arm
Rick Neale, FLORIDA TODAY Published 3:25 p.m. ET Jan. 11, 2017

James Dean was bitten by a loose pit bull while breaking up a dogfight at the Woodlake Village Apartments in Palm Bay.

For years, Melbourne licensed wildlife trapper James Dean has successfully stalked and captured hogs, raccoons, iguanas, bobcats and even a bull shark in neighborhoods and wooded areas across the Space Coast.

But on New Year's Eve, an unleashed pit bull mauled Dean's arm at the Woodlake Village Apartments in Palm Bay. He underwent surgery at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, and he continues to heal from his wounds.

According to Brevard County Animal Services and Enforcement, Dean and his girlfriend were sitting outside with one of her neighbors at the apartment complex, just northwest of the intersection of Palm Bay Road and Lipscomb Street. The neighbor was accompanied by her leashed PTSD service dog, Taz.

Shortly after 8 p.m., a white-and-tan pit bull mix named Bruce charged and attacked Taz. Dean jumped on Bruce, pulled him off the service dog, and secured the pit bull inside an animal trap in the back of his truck ? but he suffered bites to his left arm and right hand.

"There was actually a chunk taken out of his arm. He had to be admitted to the hospital for intravenous antibiotics, and he currently has a big stitch up his arm. It's wrapped in bandage, has to be put in a sling," Michael Peacock, an attorney at the Melbourne office of Morgan & Morgan, said Wednesday morning.

The pit bull owner is Tracy Burke, who lives in the Woodlake Village Apartments. She "frequently lets her dog run around unleashed because he is friendly and plays with other dogs," a Palm Bay police narrative states.

After police arrived at the scene on New Year's Eve, they learned that Burke had an arrest warrant from the Melbourne Police Department for dealing in stolen property and false verification of ownership.

https://i.imgur.com/X5O6Cfv.jpg
Wildlife trapper James Dean underwent surgery after a pit bull mauled his left arm. (Photo: Brevard County Sheriff's Office)

Iguana caught on Cocoa Beach dock; hunt for mate underway

Burke ? who suffered lacerations on her hands during the dogfight ? was arrested and transported to Palm Bay Hospital. Afterwards, deputies transported her to the Brevard County Jail Complex.

Burke pleaded not guilty to her charges on New Year's Day, and her next court hearing is Feb. 7. Animal control officers impounded and quarantined Bruce while Burke was in jail.

Dean declined comment for this story, per Peacock's advice.

"We're still trying to determine what the dog owner knew, how much the apartment complex knew, whether the dog was permitted to be there. So right now, there's an investigation into that," Peacock said.

In June 2014, Dean spent days trying to capture "Sushi," a juvenile bull shark that drew national media attention by mysteriously appearing in the Gleason Park pond in Indian Harbour Beach. Hundreds of spectators and a television news helicopter watched Dean, fellow wildlife trapper Leo Cross, and a crew of volunteers attempt to catch the shark using nets, a rowboat, chum, hand-thrown explosives and fishing poles.

A Melbourne Beach fisherman eventually netted Sushi from the Gleason Park pier. Dean used pliers to remove a fishing hook from the shark's mouth, then released the creature into the Indian River Lagoon.

[anatine]

weird but true... coral snakes are technically cobras.

[Bobby Wong]

weird but true, trapper dean starts his day with like 200 ounces of mountain dew. which might have something to do with his immunity to coral snake venom.

https://i.imgur.com/ycmjyIM.jpg

[Bobby Wong]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/02/florida.hawk.folo/index.html

Hatchlings foil bid to remove divebombing hawk from Florida tree
By Jim Kavanagh, CNN
April 2, 2011 1:53 p.m. EDT

https://i.imgur.com/7pP9Zfi.jpg
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Dud Gordon of Melbourne, Florida, shot this picture of a hawk that has attacked him three times.

(CNN) -- Dud Gordon just can't seem to beat those birds.

The Melbourne, Florida, resident thought he was going to be relieved Friday of a red-shouldered hawk that had been divebombing him and his neighbors while protecting a brood of eggs in a tree in Gordon's yard.

"It's not gonna happen today. With any luck, tomorrow," a rueful Gordon said Saturday.

James Dean, the AAA Wildlife Removal trapper Gordon hired to remove the eggs, couldn't make it Friday, and the equation changed overnight.

"Last night those eggs hatched, so new ball game now," Gordon said.

"I had figured they would be hatching soon due to the behavior of the mother," Dean said, based on Gordon's descriptions.

The original plan was to scare off the adult birds with pyrotechnics, grab the eggs and take them to the Brevard County Zoo to be incubated. Now Dean says he hopes to catch the parents in nets and have them relocated, while handing the chicks over to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida.

Audubon Society representatives could not be reached for comment.

James said he would remove the nest from the tree and donate it to the zoo for an educational exhibit.

The overly protective male hawk has sunk its talons into Gordon's scalp three times and has attacked his neighbors, as well. On Saturday morning while Gordon, Dean and a neighbor were standing on the lawn contemplating their next move, the bird landed just 15 feet from them, Gordon said.

"That guy is brazen, just absolutely brazen," Gordon, a retired Army brigadier general, said.

There's something about birds and military officers in Florida. Dean said two years ago he had to get rid of vultures that were harassing military brass trying to enter a Northrop Grumman Aerospace facility in Melbourne, 25 miles south of Cape Canaveral.

He didn't say whether any of the officers were full-bird colonels.

[Bobby Wong]

dang y'all, james dean's out trapping newsworthy hogs again

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[Bobby Wong]

dang y'all, dude almost got killed by a rampaging hog last month

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