Most folks in the Tallahassee area has seen his truck, "alligator control" with boat in tow and at the local landings. He's a good ole boy and deserves better than this.
Former alligator trapper battling more than reptiles
Midway man fighting cancer for the third time
04/13/07
Leslie Roberts
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Tony Hunter's blue eyes sparkle as he talks about his days as a nuisance alligator trapper for the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission.
He's sitting in a recliner in his home in Midway, his son, who has taken over the job, on a nearby couch, watching him talk.
But now he's fighting a battle bigger than any alligator.
After suffering a heart attack in 2005, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in March of 2006. Doctors told him it was terminal. He beat that, but then doctors found three tumors on his brain and one on his adrenal gland. Back to chemo, and radiation treatments, nausea and tiredness. Remarkably, he beat those tumors, too.
Encouraged and grateful for the support of his wife, Anna, his family and friends, he learned a month ago the cancer had spread to his liver.
Doctors gave him two to 12 months to live.
You'd never believe it if you spent more than 30 minutes with him.
"The last thing I'll do is give up, so they can kiss my butt," he said with a grin. "When I get in my chemo room, I make sure everybody laughs at least once, that they don't sit around and stew on it."
Now 54, Hunter has been an alligator trapper since 1978.
"I was in the real estate business but that got too dangerous," he said. "I burned out. You knew they were gonna get you, you just didn't know how. With alligators, you know what they're going to do."
Born in Tallahassee, Hunter moved to Naples with his family as a child and worked as an alligator trapper there before relocating to Monticello in the early '80s. He moved to Gadsden County in 1995.
"It's been an interesting ride," he said. "There really was no one to teach me how to do it. When this program came out, i found out about it and applied. I became a licensed helper, then they fired the trapper I worked with and hired me."
All three of his children - Curt, who lives in Sarasota, Mike, who recently moved back to Gadsden County, and Danielle, who lives in Crawfordville, grew up hunting and processing alligators with him. It was a family affair, with his wife, who died in 1992 from a blood clot released during surgery to treat breast cancer, often skinning and processing the alligators he couldn't farm out to zoos or exhibits.
"The state mandates that alligators that are removed have to be put in an exhibit or a zoo or destroyed - they can't be turned back out in the wild," he said.
Hunter did most of his trapping at night, using a harpoon to get a line in the alligator and pulling it toward the boat, where he would tape its mouth shut, pull it aboard and secure its legs.
"If an alligator is too elusive, we'll set hooks. We don't like to do that - we don't like to see the animal suffer in any manner," he said. "Unless you get really lucky and it hooks him in the mouth, he'll swallow the hook and die. it takes a lot of options off the table."
There's a concrete pool in the backyard where he'd bring alligators until he could either place them in a zoo or euthanize them.
"There were times we'd have 30 gators out there in that pool," he said.
He has, through the years, amassed a sizeable assortment of friends that include writers, photographers, scientists and college professors.
"It's been a cool career. It's been neat," he said. "I can't imagine doing anything else."
He and his wife, Anna, celebrated their second anniversary last week.
"Godsent, I would say," he says of her. "I feel bad about getting sick, but my God, she's been so supportive - she gets on the Internet and does research, finds all these supplements ... Mike and his wife immediately pulled up stakes in Jacksonville and came over, my brother and my close friends - it's been incredible, the amount of support I've gotten."
Those friends and relatives have planned a benefit concert for Hunter April 21 to help defray medical costs and the sudden transition from a two-income family to a one-income family.
"My son and my brother tell me, 'No, you're not a charity case. All the people you've helped over the years want to do something to help you.' Certainly I'm pleased, but it's different. I have the hardest time accepting stuff coming to me," he said.
The concert, featuring Nashville newcomer Billy Pierson and Dry County, a local band, is from 5-10 p.m. April 21 at the May Farm Barn.
Cost is $45 per person, with kids 10 and under free, and on the menu is all-you-can-eat pulled pork sandwiches and fried gator with a choice of Coke, Diet Coke or bottled water. For tickets, call 566-8656, 528,2058 or 251-2363 or see Tray at Seminole Outdoors on West Tennessee Street in Tallahassee.
Hunter said he feels good about his odds, but isn't taking anything for granted - as an independent contractor for the state he has no retirement and no life insurance.
"I have no life insurance, no retirement - there won't even be money to bury me," he said.
He's prepared to face the fact that it's possible he won't win this round.
"I'm fine. I have no regrets," he said. "I have a strong faith, so I'm fine. I have three kids, five grandchildren - hell, I've had a good life. An exciting career, still get to go fishing every now and then, I've got the best medical team and the best circle of family and friends anyone could hope to find. I've been so blessed ... but not being able to take care of your bills - the mental stress of that is probably worse than finding out you're dying. They just weigh on you. If you can't do anything about them, they do weigh on you. They weigh on you heavy."
Tony Hunter benefit concert April 21st
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