Looks like we're at a pretty good consensus, here. Particularly well summed-up by Ragnar's post. Basically, it sounds like we'd pretty much all shoot it if we had to, and deal with the aftermath.
To clarify a couple points...
This gator is definitely going to have to go. He's around 30 inches and follows me down the seawall on the lake when I walk my dog. My dog is 15 pounds. (Shiba Inu, for you dog people.)
Shooting him and not mentioning it is not an option for me. I live in an apartment complex with at least 4 LEO's in residence. No way I'd get away with SS&S around here.
I go to the apartment office and complain about it regularly, but DNR won't remove it until it's 4 feet long. Once he hits that though, I'm pretty sure they'll take it out. I'm making a pest of myself.
In the meantime, it's not supercritical. He seems to have a pretty limited territory for the moment, and where I always see him hanging out, he can't access the walkway. Not until he can scale a 5 foot seawall topped with a fence, anyway. Not to say that he can't go around the fence, but I'm careful around those areas and he doesn't seem to stray that far from his little spot.
I don't really want to shoot him, personally. I'd prefer that my little mutt stay far, far away, because he'd probably be on the losing end, even with a small gator and my superhuman reflexes.