A dog was killed by an alligator estimated at about 10 feet long on October 23 at a pond inside the Nowell Creek Village property off Daniel Island Drive. The dog was attacked after it entered the water, and wildlife experts who inspected the animal two days later determined it was not a threat, meaning it was not put down.
The incident happened in the evening at the small pond, which measures under half an acre, according to The Daniel Island News. Sarah Weston, who handles public relations for Holder Properties, said the dog was attacked when it entered the water. Holder Properties, the Atlanta-based owner of the property, worked with the Daniel Island Property Owners’ Association and Gator Getter Consultants, a wildlife management firm, to have the animal assessed.
Experts Clear the Alligator, It Stays Put
Wildlife experts visited the site two days after the attack and determined the alligator was not a threat, per Steve Denker, marketing vice president for Holder Properties. The alligator, estimated to be about 10 feet long, was not euthanized, and Weston said it did not leave the pond. The ponds and common areas at the complex are maintained by the Nowell Creek Village Property Owners’ Association.
Holder Properties said in a statement released to complex residents that it was deeply saddened a resident’s dog was killed by an alligator on October 23, and the company said it was not aware of any similar incidents happening there before. The company reminded residents to keep pets leashed and well away from the water’s edge, maintain a safe distance from alligators, and never feed or approach them.
How Daniel Island Handles Alligator Sightings
The Daniel Island Property Owners’ Association has said its protocol for areas it manages, when an alligator is reported, is to contact an alligator specialist who runs a series of tests to assess whether the animal is threatening or aggressive. A non-threatening alligator is left alone under that protocol, while one deemed threatening is removed in accordance with rules and regulations set by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
That state agency, known as SCDNR, has said the mere presence of an alligator does not make it a nuisance, even if it turns up somewhere unexpected, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. A separate SCDNR safety document notes that the agency does not keep a record of incidents involving pets specifically.
Not the First Dog Lost to a Daniel Island Gator
This is not the first time a Daniel Island pet has died this way. A Daniel Island family’s dog, Delta Dawn Blue, was fatally attacked by an alligator at a pond on June 5, according to a separate report from The Daniel Island News. Another alligator close to the same size showed up at the same Daniel Island pond just four days after an eight-foot alligator had been removed from that site. In a separate Daniel Island Village case, an alligator residents had nicknamed Walter was killed by a contracted wildlife removal specialist, as reported by the Post and Courier.
Fatal and near-fatal encounters have also surfaced elsewhere in the state. In July 2026, an alligator attacked and killed a dog in the Myrtle Beach Golf & Yacht Club neighborhood of Horry County, and a 75-year-old man died in an alligator attack in that same neighborhood back in June 2022, according to WMBF News. That outlet also reported that alligators fed by humans can grow less fearful of people and more likely to approach them. A September 27, 2022, report cited by WJCL found South Carolina had recorded 22 alligator attacks since 2000, with seven of those happening in just the two years before the report.
