CAPE CORAL, Fla.- Cape Coral police want to know who beheaded alligators and left the bodies to rot in a canal.

Police say of the four gators found, at least two of them, are victims of poaching. The carcasses were discovered near the intersection of Southwest 20th Avenue and Southwest 25th Street near Veterans Memorial Parkway.

The pictures may be hard to look at.

Two of the carcasses were found floating on Wednesday. A student walking nearby smelled a foul odor and that's when he saw the gruesome sight. He alerted his father who then called Cape Coral Police.

They found two bodies both with the tails and the heads cut off. At this time, police don't know where the gators came from, or how they ended up in this canal. But do say, with these two, this is a case of poaching.

Waste Pro removed the bodies and say they've removed a total of gator four carcasses in this area this week: the most they've seen in such a short time period.


"We've picked up gators on the side of the road from cars and trucks hitting them and also some that have been skinned out but the last one we did was six months ago until the last few days ago," said Troy Goss with Waste Pro.

Poaching an alligator is punishable by a third degree felony.

If you have any information about this case you are urged to call the Cape Coral Police Department.