This video of a child riding an 8ft alligator is deeply disturbing

Letting a child ride an alligator. What's the worst that could happen?

Death, dismemberment, animal cruelty, a range of terrible possibilities.

'Bubba' is an 8ft-long 90kg alligator from the Chicago area. He is being ridden by a young girl called Katie.

She is around seven years old.

The adults in the video tell her to rock back to pose for a photo.

It's a bit of a strange one.

You can watch the full clip below:

This seems to be a surprisingly common practice, despite the fact that alligators are wild animals.

Just take the chilling few seconds in this video where the alligator freezes and refuses to obey commands.

This practice is also cruel to the animals - their backs are not evolutionarily designed to take the weight of a child.

Why they are being used for entertainment purposes is beyond us.

HT Daily Mail