Helpless alligator spotted with jaws taped shut as woman launches bid to save it

An alligator stuck in a small pond with its mouth taped together has left a woman trying to save it.

According to Amber Lock, the reptile has had its mouth bound in Florida since December after someone attempted to remove it from the enclosure.

Amber believes the tortured beast was dumped there by a trapper who then couldn't get to it to remove the tape in a botched operation.

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"Whoever attempted to trap him and put the tape around his mouth clearly lost him and that's what started this," Amber said.

Lock says she has contacted multiple animal charities and other local trappers in the hopes of freeing the animal but has hit a brick wall relating to not having a permit.

Speaking to Fox 13, she said: "I tried other avenues to try to expedite this and make it something that's important to everyone and there's just been no traction.

"I feel that this animal's been suffering for two months and that to me, that's just unacceptable."

Having their mouth taped shut for an extended period of time can have a severe impact on the animals health, an expert said.

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"It does physically affect him. He loses body mass. He gets dehydrated," said Martha Rivera of the Everglades Outpost Sanctuary.

"You know, if this gator is in a retention pond, the trapper that went out there should definitely not have left him, especially with the tape on the mouth. Then you also have the fact, too, that that tape messes up their skin."

For safety reasons, alligators usually get their mouths taped shut when being transported, but it should not be kept on long-term.

"Someone needs to go back out there and get this alligator," Rivera added. "There's no way that you could just leave it there with its mouth taped shut. It's inhumane as well."

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