Another gator attack!

Just days ago, we had a news story out of Lakeland, FL of a gator swimming in a lake with a body in its mouth.  They still haven't identified or released who the victim was because the guy had been dead for at least a day in the water.  That gator has since been caught and destroyed.

Today, we get a story of a 2 year old that was grabbed by an alligator INSIDE Disney World at the Grand Floridian Resort.  They are searching for the child.  With it being a smaller child, I do not expect them to find it without catching a gator with the body.  Gators take their prey underwater and roll.  They devour what they want and hold on to the rest for later.  If this was a good size gator, a 2 year old is just a big meal.

I hate it for the parents.  However, having been to Disney World, there are signs everywhere to stay away out of the water if your resort has a beach.  Its Florida, folks, and alligators are in almost every body of water.  If you want to swim at Disney, you have got to use the pools.

How absolutely horrible.  Given the timeline it sounds as if it getting their child back alive will not be possible (assuming they get the child back at all).
I can imagine that family will never be able to associate Disney with anything "happy" again.

I can also see a lawsuit coming that will cause Disney to put up barriers around any alligator infested areas.

alldatndensum wrote:

I can also see a lawsuit coming that will cause Disney to put up barriers around any alligator infested areas.

That was my second thought (after how horrific it must be for the parents).

I just read a news snippet saying that the searchers are no longer hoping for a rescue and that it has become a "recovery" search.

I just saw the same.  They did say that Disney had shut down ALL of its beaches.  Due to environmental rules and regulations, they cannot just remove the gators, either.  So, I imagine that they will just end up walling off those areas.  They'd almost have to.

They recovered the little boy's body intact and had removed/euthanized 5 gators.  They are currently checking bite marks to see if they got the right one.

Wow. I have a 7 year old and I can't imagine where the parents are emotionally right now. Not only are they dealing with a tragedy, the whole world gets to be a part of it.

Praying for them.

Praying for their healing which will take some time.  For the here and now, they will try to hold things together with cameras in their faces.

I just wish that the media and comments to stories like this would stop throwing the blame.  In the gorilla story, people were quick to slam the parents.  In this one, it is all Disney's fault.  Sometimes, things just happen.  We've become a society that wants to drop a lawsuit for the least little thing so that we have to make a case of everything.  Leave the families alone.  The truth will come out eventually.  Let them heal.

The media thrives on judgmentalism of its own celebrity anchors and the comments of the ravenous readers who instantly become experts.  Don Henley sang it best when he said that we love our dirty laundry.

I hate to say it but I think it's a racial thing. Disney is getting the blame because he was white and the Cleveland gorilla incident was a black family.

I'm not racist - I work at a facility with more black than white staff and have several black friends. Before I moved to St Louis, I only knew one black person. Since knowing more, and growing close to several of them, I've noticed that racism is still alive in America. We may not have lynchings and the n-word thrown around, but it's there if you look for it.

Okay, off my soapbox.

You are possibly on to something.  I hadn't really noticed the ethnicity of the child in the gorilla attack.  However, what is different there is that the child's FAMILY was blamed for the gorilla attack by the media.  Disney is a media giant and therefore must be at fault.

My wife said she has noticed a few articles (and comments from people) on the web blaming the parent's for not watching their child close enough in the gator killing.  Which is ridiculous (for both the gorilla and gator incident).

We are so quick to place a blame on everything these days.

I don't have kids, but I have been around enough to know that even the best parent can have a small child get away from them quickly.  If there is a place to squeeze through, they will try.  Then, factor in a mammal or reptilian predator with a mind of its own, and things can quickly get out of hand.  I don't care if you have signs up or not.  Even a "foolproof" barricade will still have an exploitable hole at times that a child can find because the designer never even considered that item an issue.

So, accidents happen.

What I find shocking is that Disney apparently had no warning signs about gators, just no swimming. Say, yes, they're going to pay big for this one.