2 year old boy snatched by alligator at Disney World

[Joe Nieuwendyk]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Sure. People like you who pro create lead to stories like this one. I deal with your type all the time, parent of the year!

Every single parent in the world has had a lapse of judgement at some point that put their kids in danger. The vast majority of the time, they get away with it.

These people obviously underestimated the danger but they probably thought they were being safe. The mother was with the child the entire time and they were in one foot of water. It probably seemed very safe. Even if they considered that there might be alligators in the lagoon, they probably had no idea (as I'm sure very few tourists do) how stealthy and how quick they can be. I'm sure they thought they would see it coming from far away and would have no worries about getting away. They were wrong and will pay for this lapse of judgement for the rest of their lives.

You act like they tied a slab of meat to their child and dangled it over the side of a boat. That would be moronic.

One of my trips to Florida, a parent was arrested for sitting their child on top of an alligator basking in the sun so they could take a picture. That was moronic.

What these people did was a mistake...a mistake that probably happens a thousand times every day in Florida. They just happened to pay the ultimate price.

[calgaryblood]

Man stories like these really make me want to puke. I've tried all day to block the image out of my head and I just can't. Feel bad for the parents, what a nightmare.

[dubc80]

Sad story. I have a son who turns 2 in September so I can relate.

First thing I think of when I see a "No Swimming" signs is:
- Poor water quality
- Drowning risk
- No lifeguard on duty

No way I would of thought it related to alligators. From what Ive read, this is on a beach on a family Disney resort. The presence of alligators would of been the last thing on my mind.

I bet I'd let my little guy go splash on the edge of the water too, if I'm only a few feet away.

Guess that makes me an irresponsible parent. . Thoughts go out to the victims.

[monkeyman]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I think there's a difference between a "No Swimming" sign and "Stay Out of the Water" sign. The family made an honest mistake, thinking it was ok for their kid to wade in light water.

You would think some posters here would just have a little empathy. Not every situation needs to degenerate into a finger pointing exercise on who should be blamed for the accident.

Especially when you're on a luxury resort beach lined with things like lounge chairs and canoes.

[calgaryblood]

Yep coming from another place where there is no alligators "no swimming" to me would mean there is no lifeguard on duty or drowning risk because of weeds and/or water quality.

[wwkayaker]

Originally Posted by taco.vidal

http://m.palmbeachpost.com/news/news...disney-/nrgS3/
So they found the kids dead body. 5 alligators killed and still not sure if they need to kill more.
I havent read enough details about this particular lagoon or incident. However, a fre preliminary points:
-how do you get to florida and not know that gators are everywhere especially bodies of water including swimming pools. A lagoon shouldnt be a surprise.
-I guess "no swimming" may not be specific enough. Since the kid doesnt know how to swim, he cant be breaking the no swimming rule.

I look forward for more details to come out and to see how Disney handles this.

A friend of mine was in Florida to complete a masters degree...smart guy. He is a competitive water skier and lived in a lakeside house. He talked about guys waterskiing in water with alligators. He followed suit without incident. At his level, he doesn't wipe out waterskiing like I would. I still can't wrap my head around waterskiing in water bodies inhabited by alligators. For me, that would be a no go. However, I live in the mountains and am in the bush everyday. There are warning signs about bears and cougars yet I still go hiking and biking. I carry bear bangers and often have pepper spray. On two occasions I am aware of, I have had a cougar track me. I see people with kids in the bush and they have no defence tools and seem unaware of the risks. I guess my point is that you learn to live with risks. Some people may be unaware of the risks which leads to tragedies such as this one.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by V

The dude's a park ranger. He knows what he's talking about.

Oh, okay! Well that makes sense.

Being a Park Ranger, dissentowner would be closer to the situation. Ranging all those Parks he has undoubtably seen some stupid behaviour by people trying to get close to potentially dangerous wildlife. Maybe this hits home for him. Thanks for the clarification, V!

[Joe Nieuwendyk]

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission puts the odds of being seriously injured in a random alligator attack at one in 2.4 million

cnn.com

The odds of being hit by lightening are about 1 in 4.2 million.

[llwhiteoutll]

No reason at all for people to be running around killing random gators over this.

People in general are horrible for this; we encroach onto animal habitat and then kill the animals when they act like animals or become habituated through our actions.

Check the screens for damage and put a sign up that says “stay the #### out of the water”. But killing a bunch of gators that MIGHT be responsible for this does no good and doesn't make a difference.

[TheAlpineOracle]

I'm actually quite surprised this isn't a more common occurrence down in Florida. My wife and I spent some time in the Everglades when I was down there for work and the gators were massive and they were everywhere. One day rather than doing the normal tour, our hotel told us that when driving to Miami just turn down a certain road and there would be gators everywhere, but to make absolutely sure not to get out of the car and that someone has even lost a hand there a couple of week prior (I googled it and it was true).

We pulled up this road and the gators are everywhere, hissing at our car. Really remarkable, but scary at the same time. We see a bunch of other cars up the road ahead and these people were outside of their car with their kids not more than 6-7 feed away from these wild animals. I couldn't even watch and had to drive further up the road so I wouldn't have to have the anxiety of these kids around the alligators.

I'm not a parent, so i'm going to stop short of calling these people in Orlando idiots (just short), but to go to Florida and go anywhere near a lake, ditch, slough, freshwater, etc. is incredibly misguided. It doesn't matter where your from, when you go to Florida you just don't jump in the water anywhere at night. That is common sense. You couldn't pay me enough to get me to jump in any water that wasn't the ocean in that State in the middle of the day, let alone in the dark with my kids in tow.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

So 5 alligators have been killed for being alligators?

That sucks. Couldn't they just rehabbed and rehabilitated it?

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by dubc80

Sad story. I have a son who turns 2 in September so I can relate.

First thing I think of when I see a "No Swimming" signs is:
- Poor water quality
- Drowning risk
- No lifeguard on duty

No way I would of thought it related to alligators. From what Ive read, this is on a beach on a family Disney resort. The presence of alligators would of been the last thing on my mind.

I bet I'd let my little guy go splash on the edge of the water too, if I'm only a few feet away.

Guess that makes me an irresponsible parent. . Thoughts go out to the victims.

I'm sorry, but if you go to Florida without doing any research of the local wildlife and let your kids splash around in fresh water at night (I'd argue anytime during that day), that 100% makes you an irresponsible parent in my books.

I honestly can't believe there are people on here saying going to Florida that being careful of alligators wouldn't even be on their list of things to consider.

[Ashasx]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

I'm sorry, but if you go to Florida without doing any research of the local wildlife and let your kids splash around in fresh water at night (I'd argue anytime during that day), that 100% makes you an irresponsible parent in my books.

I honestly can't believe there are people on here saying going to Florida that being careful of alligators wouldn't even be on their list of things to consider.

But these people are also considering

a. it's the most renown family-friendly resort/amusement park in the world.
b. it happened on an inviting sandy beach with lawn chairs, tables, etc.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by monkeyman

Especially when you're on a luxury resort beach lined with things like lounge chairs and canoes.

This. Are people missing the part that this was at a family resort with groomed sand and lounge chairs, and not some random marshy pond in the everglades? If Disney doesn't want people strolling along the water, they should put rocks down - the kind you see at all kinds of shorelines where they don't want people to walk.

[KelVarnsen]

Originally Posted by V

The dude's a park ranger. He knows what he's talking about.

I was unaware. I do apologize.

[llwhiteoutll]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

This. Are people missing the part that this was at a family resort with groomed sand and lounge chairs, and not some random marshy pond in the everglades? If Disney doesn't want people strolling along the water, they should put rocks down - the kind you see at all kinds of shorelines where they don't want people to walk.

I guess there is ample time now to debate whether or not wading through the lake is considered swimming.

[TheAlpineOracle]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

But these people are also considering

a. it's the most renown family-friendly resort/amusement park in the world.
b. it happened on an inviting sandy beach with lawn chairs, tables, etc.

Didn't happen in Disney World, I'd be a bit more understanding if it did as most would think you are free from all hazards there once you are in the theme park.

This happened on a very large lagoon that this hotel backed on to. This wasn't some confined area they could keep alligators out of.

Clearly marked "No Swimming". I seriously doubt there was no alligators warnings, but even if there wasn't, common sense would suggest you are in Florida and going into a large natural lagoon (not man-made) would be a bad idea, especially at night.

Feel terrible for the family, I just have a hard time processing how some people seem to suggest that this isn't even something they would consider when taking their family to Florida. I don't even have kids, and I'm more than aware about the risk of Alligators in Florida, and ensured I wouldn't be in bad situation while I was down there. Christ, I even did research on the beaches (shuffled instead of walk in the water so you don't step on a stingray, don't pee in the water because it attracts, sharks). Maybe i'm too far the other way though when it comes to risk.

[JiriHrdina]

Having been there, and at the foot of that body of water - never in a million years would have guessed that there could be alligators. Largely because it is frickin' Disney World - where they scrub everything squeeky clean. I would logically conclude that there wouldn't be potential man-eating animals in their lagoon.
I have a huge water phobia, on account of not being able to swim, so I'm very careful around water - but the threat of an alligator in THIS body of water? Never would have occured to me in the least. Anyone suggesting this is on the parents is being judgemental and unrealistic.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Didn't happen in Disney World, I'd be a bit more understanding if it did as most would think you are free from all hazards there once you are in the theme park.

Unless I'm confused about where this is - when you are down there, this pretty much is part of the resort. It very much feels like part of the Disney World resort - and not some wild lagoon where one would expect to have this type of risk.

[Ashasx]

The Grand Floridian isn't "part" of the amusement park, yes, but it is the main hotel, owned by Disney, is Disney themed, etc. You take a ferry from the hotel to the Magic Kingdom park.

But this is the water front.



There are lounge chairs not 15 feet from the water. If I had an inkling that gators were a serious concern, I wouldn't even bring my child to that beach. But there it is, a beach for guests to visit, rest, etc.

I don't look at that beach and think "danger".