HELP WITH IDENTIFICATION OF SEVERED ARM!

I got a call this morning from the Copperas Cove,Tx Animal Control,Bo Brabbin,
1-817-648-8555, From the sound of his voice I figured they found a venomous snake.......Turns out a Apartment complex in the middle of the City,
which has a big Duck/Fish Pond noticed less fish. Sunday mornig a frantic
tenet called to report a strange severed arm close by the pond??......American Alligators are known to be in Belton Lake area.....Any
help Identifying this Arm would be Greatly appreciated......The Arm was cut
clean thru the bone with a very sharp knife. As you can see from the pictures
it's (Da Arm) about 12 inches in length and weights 1.25 lbs. What sized Crocodillian would be missing such appendage? Thanks......I will be preserving this for future examination.......

Pics of severed arm

I don't know. Sadly it doesn't surprise me anymore, that someone has obviously butchered it.

ETA. You might want to edit your pictures a little, as they show someone's phone number.

That's terrible. I hate seeing stuff like that. That's as bad as finding a local snake with its head chopped off.

Rick Vanderpool

Keith, looks like the front leg from a alligator.

Poor thing.

I'm no help in IDing it, but I'm guessing someone's having gator steaks for dinner....

Looks like an American Alligator *shrugs* im not much help with that stuff though.

I just found this somewhat funny and thought i might share, its been around the interwebs for awhile now.

The Apartment complex that discovered this severed arm has sent out flyers
to all tenants to be on the look out for a three legged Gator????? Could a
gator live from such a wound???? Thanks

Yes, it could live with just 3 legs. It does look very much like a gator . I ll post pics of my girls legs when i get home from work for comparison.

Originally Posted by Keith Northrop

The Apartment complex that discovered this severed arm has sent out flyers
to all tenants to be on the look out for a three legged Gator????? Could a
gator live from such a wound???? Thanks

Yeah, we catch gators missing one or more limbs at all times. They get twisted off by other gators. That's a front arm, obviously, and NOT from an extremely large alligator. I could see a couple of guys being able to possibly hold a gator down and cut the arm off without killing the gator, but it wouldn't be EASY at that size.

Most likely, they just poached the thing (very common in Texas), saved the tail meat, and dumped the parts around town as a practical joke...or some animal drug it out of the dumpster where they placed it and was scared off before they ate on it.

The worst part is, if it os a poached gator, that they are wasting a lot of good meat. Limbs are red meat and make the best sausage, spaghetti, soup, and stew. If you are gonna poach, don't waste the resource - that make the activity 20 times worse in my mind!

KJ