Footage released this week shows a Florida man rescuing his three-month-old puppy from the grasp of an alligator.

The dramatic encounter was unexpectedly captured on film by a project designed to monitor local wildlife, USA Today reports.

In the video, you can see the man jumping into a waist-deep pond water after the alligator dragged the dog underwater. “The man submerges his whole arm to bring the small dog to the surface, with the small alligator still latched on,” USA Today’s Kaitlin Greenockle and Joel Shannon write.

>>Warning: The following video contains sounds and images of an animal in distress. Viewer discretion is advised.

As the dog yelps, his owner struggles to free it from the gator’s grasp, “loudly grunting from the strain,” Greenockle and Shannon write. “After about 12 seconds, the man succeeds in freeing his pet, and it scampers ashore.”

The footage was shot as part of a project between the Florida Wildlife Federation and the fStop Foundation. “The organization that captured the video says the man and his dog are OK,” USA Today reports.

>>Read more here.

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