2 Year Old Dragged into Water by Gator at Disney Resort

[Anonymous]

Eyewitnesses have said NO SWIMMING (not 'alligator warning') signs are posted all around.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone mentioned the 4 yr old sibling was in a play pen 30 feet away on the beach? Second weirdest thing about this story. (But nothing compared to the tragedy).

[Anonymous]

Horrible! Imagine the absolute horror of seeing your 2 year old dragged off by an alligator. Just the thought makes me want to scream.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG. How is it possible that they have gators on their property?!?! You'd think it was a man-made lagoon free of gators.

Ummmmm...why couldn't a gator enter a "man-made" lagoon?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Florida. Alligators are a dime a dozen here. Like squirrels in northern Virginia, they are everywhere and we coexist and take special care of our children and pets. They usually do not attack humans. A horrible tragedy this is, however some of you are acting like seeing an alligator is like spotting a T-Rex.

There's no shortage of stupid in DC.

[Anonymous]

I agree that Disney should post signs because their visitors come from all over the world. Most people think that a beach on a resort is safe to lie on or wade in. A "No Swimming"sign does not mean it is dangerous to be in the water unless a hazard is written or illustrated on it. I'm not surprised that they haven't since they have shown in the past that safety is not the top priority, as it used to be while Walt Disney was in charge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Horrible! Imagine the absolute horror of seeing your 2 year old dragged off by an alligator. Just the thought makes me want to scream.

It is a parent's worse nightmare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm starting to think Hellmouths are real...and Orlando is on one

+1

[Anonymous]

In FL, it is reasonable to assume every body of fresh water -- excluding swimming pools -- has gators.

[Anonymous]

The Mouse is going to need to lawyer up. Big time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of you have no idea what Florida is like. Florida is fairly well inhabited by alligators and the occasional crocodile. They are pretty common throughout the state, although they tend to shy away from highly inhabited areas. They do gravitate towards the many natural and manmade bodies of water. You can't eliminate all of them. Disney property is 43 sq miles. in an irregular pattern. It would be virtually impossible to cordone off the entire property and maintain a perimeter. To put things in perspective, Bethesda is 13.2 sq miles. So DisneyWorld is over 3 times the size of Bethesda. Arlington is 26 sq miles. Washington DC is 61 sq miles, so Disney is about 3/4 the size of DC. That's a pretty darn big area to maintain a perimeter and even if you did build a huge fence, it could take you months to try and sweep the area to clear the area of alligators.

This normally doesn't happen because alligators tend to stay away from groups of humans.

Alligators are very common anywhere from South Carolina on down. We lived in coastal South Carolina, and we didn't let our children anywhere near fresh water. We kept a careful eye out in saltwater, as well. Alligators generally stay in fresh water, but we'd occasionally see them in the sound. It was not uncommon for alligators to get people's dogs. Alligators roam, and the babies are fairly small, I don't know how you would "fence" them out. Now you know why there used to be alligator eradication programs. However, the environmental community advocated for the recovery of these species, and they're doing very well. I'm not sure Disney could legally kill all the gators in the park, even if they wanted to.

+1 This. Former Florida resident who still vacations there. I haven't visited Disney in over 25 years, but they should definitely have signs posted by any body of water or marshy area, so that parents would be reminded to hold their kids and not let them walk around unattended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is a 2-yr-old up at 9:30?

that's your response to this tragedy? are you the spawn of trump?

I guess, and no. Gators will eat what they eat. Keep kids away and they won't get eaten.

Fuck you, you ignorant piece of shit. Did you even read the article? They were on land and there are NO SIGNS to let anyone know there are gators in a MAN MADE lake. Who the fuck would expect alligators to pop out and eat a kid at Disney?

Too bad there isn't one around to eat you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any chance this child could have survived? I'm praying I wake up in the morning to good news. That the gator only bit an ankle and the child doggy paddled to a sandbar somewhere and waited for help.

I don't realistically see this happening, but I can't help but hope maybe this won't be a sad ending.

No matter what though, they need to hunt down this man eater and kill it.

They haven't found the kid. Why kill a wild animal for doing what it is supposed to for survival? If the parents of the kid had been holding onto their kid, it might not have happened.

I can't stand when animals are blamed/ killed for human error.

Go away, gorilla girl. Sacrifice yourself to the animal gods. You won't be missed.

[Anonymous]

From DC. Went to grad school near Orlando. Everyone knew to keep an eye out for alligators. Any areas with man made lakes/ water areas especially (i.e. Golf courses etc)

[Anonymous]

I'd bet the "no swimming" signs have more to do with the bacteria that makes stagnant water dangerous to swim in. They should have warnings about alligators. If Disney encouraged small children to sit on the beach at the exact time of day alligators are most likely to go out to find food, that was a serious mistake. They should have known better. Allowing guests to feed them pizza is a grave mistake. When I was young, almost all of the alligator attack stories on the news were about people who fed them regularly.

There are alligators everywhere in the area. The sleep-away summer camp I attended was on a lake where authorities relocated the problem gators. They were just too friendly around people, almost exclusively because people fed them. They spent about 30 minutes of our first meeting just explaining what not to do and how to run away from an alligator.