Alligator Attack Victim Wants Animal's Head

A US teenager who lost most of his right arm when he was attacked by an alligator has said he wants the animal's head.

Kaleb Langdale lost his limb below the elbow, but said it was only by offering the 11-foot alligator his arm that he had been able to survive at all.

He said the skills he learned from watching TV shows like Swamp People helped him fend off the attack.

And the 17-year-old from Florida told Fox News he planned to seek vengeance despite the animal already having been killed.

"I want his head," he said.

"I'm going to use it for a prosthetic arm rest. You can't do this to me and get away with it.

"I'm glad the alligator attacked me, because if it was any of my friends, they probably would have died."

Kaleb said the alligator lunged at him as he tried to swim away on the Caloosahatchee River near Moore Haven.

He said he felt the pressure of the alligator biting his arm and knew the animal had a locked grip when it started to perform a death roll.

All that remained of his arm after the tussle was what Kaleb described as a dangling tendon.

"I still couldn't break free because I was still attached to the tendon," he said.

"Then the gator did another death roll and I kicked my way out of it."

Gary Beck, a friend, said Kaleb popped out of the water, screaming: "Call the paramedics, my arm is gone."

Kaleb said he managed to stanch the bleeding by squeezing what was left of his arm between his legs - and by using spiderwebs he found to stop the flow of blood.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Jorge Pino said the teenager's arm was still inside the alligator when it was hunted down and killed on the evening after the attack. It was not possible to re-attach the limb.

Kaleb's mother Felinda Langdale said: "He could have lost his life. Half an arm is nothing."