Gator at Disney

[Clonehomer]

So the Dad tried to save the son and couldn't then just let the gator take the son away? Am I missing something? I don't see how the kid could be alive sorry to say. Having two young children, the thought makes me sick to my stomach.

Gators always dive to the bottom of the lake with their prey. I can see how it would be impossible to get the child away. But really, even if he had gotten him loose the kid was probably dead already. Heartbreaking loss for that family.

As far as Disney, this incident will cost them more from people using it as a reason to go elsewhere than they will from any settlement.

 

[brett108]

I don't know anything about this hotel - is it billed as you being right there with the animals? If so, I'd gather there's an insane amount of signage warning guests of the gators if they don't allow people to swim here?

If not, Disney is hugely liable here. If so, while I feel TERRIBLE for the parents, why on Earth would you let your toddler swim in gator-infested waters?

There are signs everywhere. If you are in Florida you should never let your kids be around an open body of water. It's pretty basic advice that has been given for years. Gator wind up in swimming pools all the time.

The local news showed the signs. While I feel for the parents as a moments lapse has lost them their child, if they immediately file a lawsuit my sympathy dries up. They probably have received calls from several law firms hoping to get some money from the Disney enterprise. What a nightmare.

 

[mj4cy]

You don't let alligators do anything, alligators do whatever the **** they want.

Yeah poor choice of words on my part. Sad deal all the way around.

 

[Cyclones_R_GR8]

Horrible tragic event.

It's Florida, if there's water, there's gators

 

[drmwevr08]

This made my stomach turn when I heard it this morning. That they are from here makes it all the more real for me. I'm torn on this notion of responsibility. I wonder if this discussion will go the route of the gorilla issue. I should think that Disney would want to help this family out in some regard, hopefully without them having to make that move and losing any 'sympathy' (poster above). Disney can't win at this point but not being extremely helpful to the family would only make it worse.

 

[NWICY]

Gators gonna Gator, Tragic for the family, but sometimes bad things happen.

 

[Clonefan32]

I literally feel sick over this. As a parent of a 2 year old boy myself, I cannot imagine watching that gator drag your kid underwater, knowing at that point you are getting him back. I quite literally cannot think of anything worse than that.

 

[Clark]

So the Dad tried to save the son and couldn't then just let the gator take the son away? Am I missing something? I don't see how the kid could be alive sorry to say. Having two young children, the thought makes me sick to my stomach.

that boy is dead, but he likely would have drowned before being eaten if that helps.

and as was already said, there's no letting the alligator taking him away. Depending on what body part the alligator grabbed, the most you could hope for is playing tug of war until the arm or leg gave away. Someone that small though, the gator probably got more than just a limb so it wouldn't have mattered.

Being from Nebraska (or Iowa for that matter) it probably didn't even occur to the family to not stand close to the water.

 

[3TrueFans]

that boy is dead, but he likely would have drowned before being eaten if that helps.

and as was already said, there's no letting the alligator taking him away. Depending on what body part the alligator grabbed, the most you could hope for is playing tug of war until the arm or leg gave away. Someone that small though, the gator probably got more than just a limb so it wouldn't have mattered.

Being from Nebraska (or Iowa for that matter) it probably didn't even occur to the family to not stand close to the water.

Uh....no, that does not help.

 

[Gilberto]

We all know Disney is expensive, the area this attack occurred is in the most expensive hotel area with the Grand Floridian (must stay if you have the means) and the newly remodeled Polynesian & Contemporary Resorts. There are also a number of adjacent vacation club villas. The famous monorail track also circles these hotels from high above. Really bad look for Disney that there are not better safeguards in the lagoon for gators. But, this is Florida we're talking about and you always see alligators on golf courses, backyards, pools, etc...

 

[cycloneworld]

Sad. From the OP's article:

[FONT=&quot]There was one fatal, unprovoked alligator attack in Florida last year — the first since 2007, according to FWC.[/FONT]

Very, very rare but that has to make it even worse for the family.

 

[Clark]

We all know Disney is expensive, the area this attack occurred is in the most expensive hotel area with the Grand Floridian (must stay if you have the means) and the newly remodeled Polynesian & Contemporary Resorts. There are also a number of adjacent vacation club villas. The famous monorail track also circles these hotels from high above. Really bad look for Disney that there are not better safeguards in the lagoon for gators. But, this is Florida we're talking about and you always see alligators on golf courses, backyards, pools, etc...

well you kind of answered yourself there. I'm sure they do have safeguards, but you're not stopping a gator from moving around a swamp. I suppose they could put up a retaining wall along the beach, at least that would prevent this kind of attack.

 

[erikbj]

So the Dad tried to save the son and couldn't then just let the gator take the son away? Am I missing something? I don't see how the kid could be alive sorry to say. Having two young children, the thought makes me sick to my stomach.

I'm with you, pretty sure i would be dead today trying to save him

 

[aeroclone]

We all know Disney is expensive, the area this attack occurred is in the most expensive hotel area with the Grand Floridian (must stay if you have the means) and the newly remodeled Polynesian & Contemporary Resorts. There are also a number of adjacent vacation club villas. The famous monorail track also circles these hotels from high above. Really bad look for Disney that there are not better safeguards in the lagoon for gators. But, this is Florida we're talking about and you always see alligators on golf courses, backyards, pools, etc...

With all the talk about Disney needing better safeguards here, I would love to hear some suggestions of what those may be. From what I could find, Seven Seas Lagoon covers 200 acres and is around 14 feet deep. It connects to Bay Lake, which is about a mile across and 35 feet deep. Those two bodies of water are connected to several creeks leading to other smaller bodies of water. I have no idea how you ensure that there are no gators in a body of water like that in the middle of Florida.

Saying Disney has any liability here would be like blaming the National Park Service for a bear attack at Yellowstone. You can monitor animal activity and remove threats as best you can, but you can't stop nature 100% of the time.

 

[Clark]

With all the talk about Disney needing better safeguards here, I would love to hear some suggestions of what those may be. From what I could find, Seven Seas Lagoon covers 200 acres and is around 14 feet deep. It connects to Bay Lake, which is about a mile across and 35 feet deep. Those two bodies of water are connected to several creeks leading to other smaller bodies of water. I have no idea how you ensure that there are no gators in a body of water like that in the middle of Florida.

Saying Disney has any liability here would be like blaming the National Park Service for a bear attack at Yellowstone. You can monitor animal activity and remove threats as best you can, but you can't stop nature 100% of the time.

yeah, they couldn't possibly expect to keep alligators out of that lagoon.

If people aren't going to be able to swim in it anyway, why not just put up a 3 ft tall wall to prevent an attack like this from happening?

If I were president of Disney I'd build that wall and make the alligators pay for it.

 

[ruxCYtable]

I've been to this resort. There are signs EVERYWHERE warning against swimming and wading.

This is a terrible tragedy but was probably caused by a parent's "oh, it'll be all right" attitude.

 

[SoapyCy]

holy crap. this place is a minimum of $569 bucks/night.

 

[CyArob]

yeah, they couldn't possibly expect to keep alligators out of that lagoon.

If people aren't going to be able to swim in it anyway, why not just put up a 3 ft tall wall to prevent an attack like this from happening?

If I were president of Disney I'd build that wall and make the alligators pay for it.

Alligators never pay for anything. They have alligator arms.

I'll show myself out.

 

[boone7247]

I'm with you, pretty sure i would be dead today trying to save him

I am been thinking about this. As a dad of a toddler, I have to think that dad did everything he could think of in that instant, and is now blaming himself for not doing more. That said I don't know that more could be done. If the gator gets it's jaws locked on and is in the water not many humans would have much ability to do anything other than maybe being able to hold the gator up and waiting for more help. But even that would be extremely difficult.

As suspected if this was a 4 foot gator, dad wins. Going to guess it was considerably bigger than that, this is from the article below.

"Of the more than 750 alligator complaints investigated by the DNR each season, more than half involve small alligators less than 5 feet in length, according to Rhodes. Alligators of this size feed on crawfish, aquatic insects, small snakes, frogs and turtles. The average body weight of alligators 3 feet in length is not quite 4 pounds. Four-foot alligators average about 11 pounds, while gators measuring 5 feet average only about 22 pounds. Children and dogs that exceed these body weights by a factor of several times are not in danger."

http://www.southeasternoutdoors.com/wildlife/reptiles/article/small-alligators-not-problem.html

 

[iastatehunter]

holy crap. this place is a minimum of $569 bucks/night.

I stayed at the Floridian last summer but my employer flipped the bill. I didn't think it was worth the $ but I'm used to sub $100 hotels on vacations. When I was there I don't recall seeing any signage but I wasn't actively looking for it and I never went to any of the beaches so that most likely explains it.