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Don't mess with Nana': Texas great-grandma takes out 12-foot alligator
Great-grandmother Judy B. Cochran killed a massive 580-pound alligator that she suspected ate one of her miniature horses a few years ago. (Image source: Video screenshot)

Don't mess with Nana': Texas great-grandma takes out 12-foot alligator

A Texas great-grandmother shot and killed a massive alligator that she suspected ate one of her miniature horses a few years ago.

"One shot and he went under," Judy B. Cochran told KPRC-TV.

Cochran of Livingston, Texas, told the news station that she and her family had been tracking the 12-foot, 580-pound beast since the horse went missing about three years ago. Livingston is a small town that sits 75 miles north of Houston.

But the white-haired grandmother explained there are rules about shooting alligators in Polk County.

"There are a lot of requirements to kill a gator in Polk County," she told the Houston Chronicle. "We're one of 12 counties that has a hunting season for alligators, between Sept. 10 and 30. You have to have a permit and tags from a wildlife biologist, and you have to catch it on a hook first. We don't just go to the ranch and hunt a gator."

And since Cochran also happens to be the newly elected mayor of her town, she wanted it to be clear that this was an ethical and legal hunt.

What are the details?

The mayor said she hired a trapper to help her catch the big gator. In Texas, you have to catch alligators on a hook and line.

Nuisance trapper Stephen Moye told KPRC that he tried several different meals including chicken, pork liver, and wild boar to lure the gator, but without any luck.

Finally, he tried some roadkill raccoon.

"I understand it's a well-seasoned raccoon was the bait of choice," Cochran said.

Cochran was at work when she got the call that Moye had snagged the gator.

"You just can't abandon your office, so I did those things, ran home, changed clothes," Cochran said.

Then she headed down to the pond where a single shot took care of the problem alligator.

Cochran, whose grandchildren call her Nana, offered a warning: "Don't mess with Nana!"

What will she do with the alligator?

Cochran wasted no time deciding what to do with her kill.

"This head is going in my office," she told KPRC.

"Moye Taxidermy will be processing it, we'll eat the meat, have the head mounted and have the ridgeback part of the tail in my office,' Cochran told The Chronicle. "We'll have the hide tanned to make some boots out of it, you can only make boots from the belly."

What else?

In 2009, Cochran's grandson Simon Hughes, who was 5 years old at the time, killed an 800-pound, 12-foot-7-inch alligator.

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