Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does everyone think about the body being found intact? Did the gator get scared off, drop his prey and go? I wonder where the body was found? I can't find any articles that tell the location specifically.

They don't eat humans so he probably dragged him off, realized it wasn't good food, and discarded the body. The boy probably drowned.

Gators do eat humans. Gators eat anything that is made out of meat. Gators like their food rotten. They often kill their prey and then store it under something to rot for awhile before they eat it.

This is true. That advice I was given as a young Florida resident, was to play dead and wait to be stuffed under something, then swim away.

Advice is to yell, make noise, flail, try to scare them into dropping you. Attack his eyes, if you can. Bystanders should join in the yelling, flailing, being scary. People do get bitten by alligators in Florida, but getting killed by them is much less likely.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/10/nation/la-na-nn-alligator-attacks-rare-20120710

There are better sources than a California newspaper. State of Florida for one.

But fight. Gators are lazy. They, like most obese Americans, want a cheap and easy meal. Fighting back takes away the cheap and easy part. They'll go away.

The judgement on this thread is unreal. I haven't read all 90 plus pages but I can only assume it's because it's much easier to blame negligent parents than acknowledge this could happen to anyone. A couple of things:

1) The sign says no swimming, not no wading. I've been to that beach before and seen plenty of people walking around the water's edge. Frankly I always thought it was no swimming because of the boat traffic and of the lack of life guards. Not knowing about gators, it would never occur to me that wading would be a problem. Which brings me to my second point,

2) The people coming to DC from all over the country and all over the world would have NO reason to know there were gators in that water. None. Disney feels super safe and controlled and frankly FAKE. Why would there be gators? I could imagine a kid seeing one and assuming it's one of the audio animatronic animals all over the parks.

3) I am a big Disney fan and this incident won't stop me from going to Disneyworld, but really Disney?? In Yellowstone, where bears and bison are a risk and people and sharing their natural environment, there are signs EVERYWHERE about animal safety. Especially when you are dealing with small kids, and given the dangers of which they were clearly aware, Disney should have been much more explicit with their signs. And Disney knows that already. There will not be a big public suit bc there is no way they are going to fight this in a court of law. They will settle and rightly so. Even if you think the parents were contributorily negligent, so was Disney.

4) Speaking of the parents being negligent, the boy was not unsupervised. He was wading on the shore and his parents were obviously close enough to chase the gator into the water and wrestle with it. And having now watched a couple of YouTube videos, those things move fast. Obviously none of us can know from these mixed reports how deep he was in, etc. But on Disney beach, where you are ALLOWED to be, with other people around, and no clear warnings about the dangers in the water, I can see how reasonable parents would think letting their kid stand ankle deep would not be dangerous. Standing ankle deep in water is NOT SWIMMING. They were from Nebraska not Florida. They had NO REASON to know about gators and the dangers they present.

5) Seriously with the judgement. Have you never let your kid walk ahead of you on the street? Cross the street alone? As parents we make decisions every day about which battles to choose. I can easily see how nothing about this would have seemed unsafe on a well lit Disney beach, right after movie night, with others around and a MANMADE lagoon which is unlikely to have steep drops, cliffs, or frankly wildlife. People who think otherwise have clearly never been to Disney. Having been to this actual beach, I can totally see how this would not seem unsafe to these poor parents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does everyone think about the body being found intact? Did the gator get scared off, drop his prey and go? I wonder where the body was found? I can't find any articles that tell the location specifically.

They don't eat humans so he probably dragged him off, realized it wasn't good food, and discarded the body. The boy probably drowned.

Gators do eat humans. Gators eat anything that is made out of meat. Gators like their food rotten. They often kill their prey and then store it under something to rot for awhile before they eat it.

This is true. That advice I was given as a young Florida resident, was to play dead and wait to be stuffed under something, then swim away.

Advice is to yell, make noise, flail, try to scare them into dropping you. Attack his eyes, if you can. Bystanders should join in the yelling, flailing, being scary. People do get bitten by alligators in Florida, but getting killed by them is much less likely.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/10/nation/la-na-nn-alligator-attacks-rare-20120710

Anonymous wrote:
I've heard about guests feeding the alligators from a family member who works at the Polynesian. It's illegal to feed them, and Disney should have done something to prevent it.

I'm the pp^

I should have added that the family member posted a picture of an alligator that could be seen from one of the footbridges. She posted a photo on Facebook. He was too small to have grabbed a toddler, but she removed the picture other other day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will not go well for Disney:

"Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

and this: http://www.thewrap.com/gator-attack-disney-knew-of-problems-staffer-asked-for-fence-at-lagoon-exclusive/

If that is true, then there isn't enough money in the world to punish Disney.

I've heard about guests feeding the alligators from a family member who works at the Polynesian. It's illegal to feed them, and Disney should have done something to prevent it.

As if people will pay attention.

And yet everyone thinks people WOULD pay attention to a scroll-like sign listing the 20 reasons you shouldn't get in the water? No. That's why the sign is short "no swimming"- so people can't say they didn't read it all or missed something.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will not go well for Disney:

"Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

and this: http://www.thewrap.com/gator-attack-disney-knew-of-problems-staffer-asked-for-fence-at-lagoon-exclusive/

If that is true, then there isn't enough money in the world to punish Disney.

I've heard about guests feeding the alligators from a family member who works at the Polynesian. It's illegal to feed them, and Disney should have done something to prevent it.

Those bungalows are pretty new (they opened in 2015), which would explain why this is a new problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will not go well for Disney:

"Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

and this: http://www.thewrap.com/gator-attack-disney-knew-of-problems-staffer-asked-for-fence-at-lagoon-exclusive/

If that is true, then there isn't enough money in the world to punish Disney.

I've heard about guests feeding the alligators from a family member who works at the Polynesian. It's illegal to feed them, and Disney should have done something to prevent it.

As if people will pay attention.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a man made Pond within a few feet of fire pits, lawn chairs, pools, slides. The family in no way suspected there were alligators in the pond.
The child may have been attacked if he was just on the sand. The alligator was very aggressive and looking for dinner.
There is no to blame the family for this tragic accident. They are going through the unthinkable. I'm sure they have a lifetime of regret ahead.

I think so too, he could have been two inches out of the water instead of two inches in the water and this same thing probably would have happened. Then the "omg he was SWIMMING!" semantics would be moot, but alas, he dared to touch his feet to the water. I really don't think a court would be terribly impressed at efforts to blur the distinction between swimming and having your feet a couple inches in the water.

The reality is that it probably wouldn't have. The reason is because of the way alligators hunt and catch prey. The sense the movement in the water and head toward that. Smaller water disturbance is more manageable prey. So, if the kid had been on the beach and not moving in the water, that gator would have passed right by. They don't hunt on land and are rarely aggressive on land (unless harassed or protecting its nest).

This. There are several gators in the pond behind my house. The HOA will have them removed when when they reach about 5-6 feet. We all have kids. They play outside. They obviously know not to play in the water. If you walk towards a gator, he will go in the water. They are more aggressive during breeding and nesting season (now), but they don't grab people from dry land. They lunge from the water at prey or attack prey in the water. They don't chase people around on land. They are fast in water, but slow on land. They don't pull people from boats, jet skis or kayaks. They don't hunt for people. You don't want to be between a gator and a nest or between a gator and the water. Otherwise, we just ignore them.

The reality is that it is extremely unlikely that the alligator would have grabbed the child had he been out of the water. He would not have looked like prey standing on the shore. I've been that close to alligators plenty of times. This was a freak accident. Not the gator's fault. Not Disney's fault. Certainly not the parent's fault. People need to place blame to feel in control. We are not always in control. Bad things sometimes happen and it doesn't have to be anyone's fault.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will not go well for Disney:

"Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

and this: http://www.thewrap.com/gator-attack-disney-knew-of-problems-staffer-asked-for-fence-at-lagoon-exclusive/

If that is true, then there isn't enough money in the world to punish Disney.

I've heard about guests feeding the alligators from a family member who works at the Polynesian. It's illegal to feed them, and Disney should have done something to prevent it.

OMG did anyone post these pics yet? Another mom who was there shows her kid wadingin the water....

http://www.people.com/article/disney-alligator-attack-picture-boy-water-lagoon

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does everyone think about the body being found intact? Did the gator get scared off, drop his prey and go? I wonder where the body was found? I can't find any articles that tell the location specifically.

They don't eat humans so he probably dragged him off, realized it wasn't good food, and discarded the body. The boy probably drowned.

Gators do eat humans. Gators eat anything that is made out of meat. Gators like their food rotten. They often kill their prey and then store it under something to rot for awhile before they eat it.

This is true. That advice I was given as a young Florida resident, was to play dead and wait to be stuffed under something, then swim away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This will not go well for Disney:

"Alfred Smith of Charleston, S.C., said he alerted a Grand Floridian employee Tuesday night after seeing a gator in the lagoon. He thinks it's the same one that attacked the boy less an hour later.

"I did warn another family of three that had small kids too close to the water and they along with another family took their children and left," Smith said via email."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-disney-alligator-history-20160615-story.html

and this: http://www.thewrap.com/gator-attack-disney-knew-of-problems-staffer-asked-for-fence-at-lagoon-exclusive/

If that is true, then there isn't enough money in the world to punish Disney.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does everyone think about the body being found intact? Did the gator get scared off, drop his prey and go? I wonder where the body was found? I can't find any articles that tell the location specifically.

They don't eat humans so he probably dragged him off, realized it wasn't good food, and discarded the body. The boy probably drowned.

Gators do eat humans. Gators eat anything that is made out of meat. Gators like their food rotten. They often kill their prey and then store it under something to rot for awhile before they eat it.

An alligator was found eating an adult body just a week or ago an another location in Florida.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gator-found-holding-human-body-its-mouth-florida-cops-say-n587456

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does everyone think about the body being found intact? Did the gator get scared off, drop his prey and go? I wonder where the body was found? I can't find any articles that tell the location specifically.

They don't eat humans so he probably dragged him off, realized it wasn't good food, and discarded the body. The boy probably drowned.

No. Gators eat one gulp meals. McNuggets. When they catch something too big to one-gulp, they stash it underwater until it rots and pieces tear off easily.

Despite what others would have you believe, we are just a tasty tidbit.