Gator grabs 2 year old at Grand Floridian?

[Madteaparty001]

Still don't see an action plan on how to help the family, all talk.

edite to add: don't know why the Dis is being so weird but it's not letting me quote, was talking @dmychuds

 

[StirlingSilver83]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/news-stories/all-beaches-closed-at-walt-disney-world/

This just in Disney has closed ALL of their beaches at their resorts until further notice

 

[mshanson3121]

From today's Orlando Sentinel:

"One employee at the resort who did not want to be identified said in an email "There is such a problem on property with guests feeding the alligators thinking it's cool." There are two at the Buena Vista Palace that people regularly feed from balconies, he said".

Oh good heavens, managements going to love that one.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

This is what people need to realize. We're way too quick to point fingers and assign blame to someone when things happen. Sometimes accidents are just accidents.

my heart is breaking for this family.

Actually it's not even an accident. I truly hate to say it, but it's natural.

MG

 

[Metalliman98]

How many 2 year olds need to be killed for Disney to put proper signage that there are alligators in the lake. I don't think putting a rocky shore on the beaches is an overreaction at all.

Simply put, more than one. 1 out of hundreds of millions is not the basis to make a rational decision, especially drastic ones like getting rid of beaches or exterminating alligators. Signage? OK, not that I think anyone would actually pay attention to it, but sure, put it out there if it'll make you feel better. But recognize that with the way society currently is, it won't stop this from occurring.

 

[cruisingtwins]

In a court of law? There's precedent for prior knowledge of a condition. One incident in 40 years, leans toward Disney's favor. Greatly.

I'm sure Disney will do whatever they can to keep this out of court and will settle for a generous amount of money but none of it matters because no matter what the family lost their little boy in a horrific way.

 

[dlavender]

Can't speak for others, but the only thing I am advocating is a standard Florida Department of Wildlife warning sign. Either of the two I believe would help.

 

[cruisingtwins]

Still don't see an action plan on how to help the family, all talk.

edite to add: don't know why the Dis is being so weird but it's not letting me quote, was talking @dmychuds

What do you think people can do to help them. There is nothing anyone can do. I'm sure Disney is taking care of them with expenses. I hope they have lots of family and friends to lean on during this difficult time.

 

[whiporee]

1.3 million alligators. That's up from 500,000 when they brought back hunting tags In about 30 years the population has nearly tripled. And thats up from near extinction in the 1960s. The breed quickly and often and there's not a lot of other animals that can hurt them once they get older than four or five months.

I understand people wanting to protect nature, and the idea that humans have entered their landscape and all that. But this isn't a matter of a natural species being displaced -- this is a natural species with no predators that's been allowed to multiply without any limits and can migrate easily and often. They don't have brains large enough for a learning curve, so you can't "train" then the way you can deer or bears. They are just infesting creatures that are not designed to live near humans. They lay up to 90 eggs each season. That's a lot different from a bear or a deer or an elephant. They are a species designed to lose a lot of young, but the things that eat their young aren't around anymore. So their population explodes. That's nature at work.

People ask what can you do? Kill any of them you see in urban/suburban areas. Find the nests and break the eggs. Aggressively and actively get rid of them in human-habitated areas. Don't mess around with fences or relocation -- just get rid of them.

At some point you have to acknowledge humans have dominion over animals -- we, as a species, are allowed to put our needs over theirs, just as, given the opportunity, they would do to us. I think we've done that, and have done that for 25,000 years. This is no different.

 

[mshanson3121]

Still don't see an action plan on how to help the family, all talk.

edite to add: don't know why the Dis is being so weird but it's not letting me quote, was talking @dmychuds

Oh yeah then? What's your big plan? Are you going to donate money? Go to the funeral? Cook them a casserole? The reality is most of us cannot do anything tangible to help that family, all we can do is think of them, offer prayers whatever. AND then hopefully, come together to support the family by hopefully taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. Just because it hasn't happened before, doesn't make this time okay. It doesn't let Disney off the hook for whatever their part in it may be. At the end of the day, for a lot of families, seeing something like proper signage and education come out of a tragedy like this, IS helpful. It won't bring their son back, but at least they'll see Disney taking responsibility to help prevent it from happening to someone else.

 

[Iowamomof4]

I just saw a report that there have been 26 alligator related deaths in the last 26 years and no major incidents on disney property. This isn't a common occurrence.

What constitutes a "major incident"? http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-10-12/news/0260190168_1_hitt-alligator-fort-wilderness

 

[Hoodie]

I suspect Disney will take care of this family. I suspect we will see better signage. I KNOW the gators in the lagoon will be killed because that's Florida guidelines, not Disney. http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/nuisance/


It's heartbreaking.

 

[Belle2006beauty]

Typical responses in here. No mention of how we could help the family get through this time and how we could show our support to them. Rather spouting empty words about thoughts and prayers while we discuss who should be blamed, who will be sued, and of course what should be killed to make us feel safer. Not be safer, just feel safer.

I'm sorry but no, I don't think that people's words are empty when they say that their thoughts and prayers are with the family. I think people can really feel this tragedy deeply. However, the only way for many people to deal with tragedy is to give it meaning, and to use it as a way to prevent future occurrences. There isn't anything anyone can do that will make this loss better for this family. Do you have ideas of how to comfort them, or support them? They may find comfort in friends and family, but their pain will never truly leave them. The discussion being had is important because we don't want it to occur again.

Can they place more signage and should they? Yes and probably. Will this stop folks from wading into the water - no. Reality is there are those that have the "it will never happen to me attitude" as well as the "I don't need to follow the rules" attitude. To protect themselves Disney needs to change the line to - NO ENTERING the WATER. But at some point someone will choose not to follow the warnings. And then they will once again blame someone else.

I want to say first that I truly have my thoughts with the family. I could barely sleep last night thinking about them and their loss.

As far as the sign discussion goes, I agree with this comment. There are signs, and they shouldn't have to spell out exactly why the water is unsafe. I figure if they took the time to put up signs, they have a good reason they don't want me in that water, and I'm not going to test them by going in. This was a terrible accident and I don't believe any party is at fault. However, Disney will face a lot of backlash for this (as we can already see) and to protect themselves they will need to make the signs more descriptive of as to why people aren't allowed in the water. However as the previous poster said, people always think the rules don't apply to them and then they do whatever they want anyways.

 

[ChipnDale79]

Actually it's not even an accident. I truly hate to say it, but it's natural.

MG

There's a lot of truth to that statement as well.....

 

[rteetz]

What constitutes a "major incident"? http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-10-12/news/0260190168_1_hitt-alligator-fort-wilderness

I think a lot of people don't know about this one and or are forgetting about it.

 

[rteetz]

I suspect Disney will take care of this family. I suspect we will see better signage. I KNOW the gators in the lagoon will be killed because that's Florida guidelines, not Disney. http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/managed/alligator/nuisance/


It's heartbreaking.

4 gators have already been pulled from the lake.

 

[Madteaparty001]

What do you think people can do to help them. There is nothing anyone can do. I'm sure Disney is taking care of them with expenses. I hope they have lots of family and friends to lean on during this difficult time.

Oh yeah then? What's your big plan? Are you going to donate money? Go to the funeral? Cook them a casserole? The reality is most of us cannot do anything tangible to help that family, all we can do is think of them, offer prayers whatever. AND then hopefully, come together to support the family by hopefully taking steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. Just because it hasn't happened before, doesn't make this time okay. It doesn't let Disney off the hook for whatever their part in it may be. At the end of the day, for a lot of families, seeing something like proper signage and education come out of a tragedy like this, IS helpful. It won't bring their son back, but at least they'll see Disney taking responsibility to help prevent it from happening to someone else.

I completely agree with both of you, if you followed the responses between myself and dmychuds, you would see that. The user was condemning us for discussing this tragedy on a discussion board.

 

[catlady7]

As humans we took over the alligators habitat. We need to learn to live in their world, not kill them and remove them from ours. As a fellow Canadian I'm shocked and slightly disgusted at your blunt views. Dangerous animal are will always be around. Unless they pose an actual threat to someone, most of them are left alone. What it really comes down to is people need to be educated. Btw, when was the last time you saw a polar bear walk down Main Street?

I know at CSR they had so many raccoons going up to people during the day they started setting traps. One morning by accident my daughter and I took a walk and missed the sign that said no guests allowed past this point on the path and we then saw about twenty traps all filled with baby raccoons. They were all just sitting in there and when I asked a groundskeeper there he said they relocate them. To where I do not know but I never even knew there was a raccoon problem at the resorts.

 

[dmychuds]

I completely agree with both of you, if you followed the responses between myself and dmychuds, you would see that. The user was condemning us for discussing this tragedy on a discussion board.

Saying "Typical Responses in here" and pointing out that people are just assigning blame left and right is condemnation to you? I'm sorry to have fed into your need to see yourself as a victim. It wasn't my intent. Well, back to condemning you all from my high high horse!

 

[mab2012]

What a horrible tragedy for this family.

Everyone wants to find someone to blame, because they want some assurance that this couldn't happen to THEM. So they blame the parents, or they blame Disney. But the reality is that playing on the beach, even at the edge of the water, is not really dangerous in any objective sense. The evidence (albeit non-scientific) is in this very thread. How many people have posted that their own kids have waded in the water? How many have posted that they've seen others do it? How many spend time on the beaches or using small watercraft on the lake itself every single day? And out of all that, how many have DIED from an alligator attack, or even been injured?

Was there a risk there? Sure. But every time I walk down the sidewalk, there's a risk that a car might jump the curb and run into me (or my kid). When I go out in winter, there's a risk I might slip on ice and crack my head. And let's not even get started on the risk I take with myself and my kids when I get in my car Every. Single. Day. Tragic things happen sometimes, and it's not always someone's fault.

Was it wise for a small child to be playing at the edge of the water, at night, in a season when alligators are known to be aggressive? No. Was the result foreseeable? Maybe, in the sense that something like this could probably be assumed to happen eventually. But there was no reason for either the parents OR Disney to assume that an attack was even remotely likely. If you put enough cars on the roads, it's inevitable that some of them will collide, and people will die. Does that mean we should all stop driving? Or, in this case, does it mean that Disney should put up fences, and nobody should ever be allowed to enjoy the beaches again? I don't think so. More specific signage might be reasonable, but some risk is inherent in life, no matter how many signs you put up.