2 year old taken by alligator at Disney Land resort Florida hotel

mikeym · 15-06-2016 06:05PM

The poor child

My heart goes out to the parents.

ceadaoin. · 15-06-2016 06:06PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

I'm sure it is.....but the kid was snatched in the rotten (your words) water, a 2 year old allowed out of sight enough near a body of water to be snatched

and another thing that hits me with this story, who here values their life over their childs .....they tried and 'failed' to save the kid in less than a foot of water and called a lifeguard, they gave up on that child

You must be taking the piss. They called the lifeguard after he had failed to retrieve the child from the jaws of a possibly 800lb alligator. The alligator had disappeared back into the water by that time. I don't think that is giving up on the child ffs. He did everything he could

c68zapdsm5i1ru · 15-06-2016 06:08PM

gramar wrote: »

The McCanns aren't in Florida by any chance are they?

You really are coming across as pretty unpleasant.

Samaris · 15-06-2016 06:18PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

I'm sure it is.....but the kid was snatched in the rotten (your words) water, a 2 year old allowed out of sight enough near a body of water to be snatched

and another thing that hits me with this story, who here values their life over their childs .....they tried and 'failed' to save the kid in less than a foot of water and called a lifeguard, they gave up on that child

Crass joke - check
Pages of arguing about crass joke - check
Finger-waggling at the parents with very little knowledge of the facts - check

Someday, AH will surprise me. Today is not that day.

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 06:18PM

mikeym wrote: »

The poor child

My heart goes out to the parents.

I'll save all my sympathy for a baby who needlessly and recklessly lost his life in the most terrifying of ways ......9.30 at night, in a swamp 2 yrs old!

Samaris · 15-06-2016 06:18PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

I'll save all my sympathy for a baby old who needlessly and recklessly lost his life in the most terrifying of ways ......9.30 at night, in a swamp 2 yrs old!

9.30 at night! It's mid-summer. 9.30 is not dark.

In a swamp! It's Florida, the whole damned thing is a swamp.

*eyeroll*

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 06:23PM

Samaris wrote: »

9.30 at night! It's mid-summer. 9.30 is not dark.

In a swamp! It's Florida, the whole damned thing is a swamp.

*eyeroll*

I know you're ignorant and angling, it gets dark before 9pm in Florida this time of year

MadDog76 · 15-06-2016 06:24PM

topper75 wrote: »

Nobody laughed at the death of a child anyway. Which makes the high horse thing even more misplaced and amusing.

The low standard of the article was picked up on - typical internet 'journalism'. A hack article on a bizarre event. That was the butt of the joke. The event was also tragic but being sombre on an internet forum thousands of miles away does absolutely nothing to reverse that. So I don't really know what those posters are calling for.

I'd like to see the post addressed by a Mod and the poster dealt with accordingly ............ the poster is guilty of making an unfunny joke (which is not against the rules) as well as "Being a Dick", which is against the rules.

metaoblivia · 15-06-2016 06:28PM

Samaris wrote: »

9.30 at night! It's mid-summer. 9.30 is not dark.

In a swamp! It's Florida, the whole damned thing is a swamp.

*eyeroll*

It is dark in Florida at 9:30pm. Florida's far south of Ireland - we don't get the long/short day extremes with seasons like you guys do.

http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/orlando?month=6

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 06:32PM

metaoblivia wrote: »

It is dark in Florida at 9:30pm. Florida's far south of Ireland - we don't get the long/short day extremes with seasons like you guys do.

http://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/orlando?month=6

He's most likely never been outside his mommy's bedsit, just sits on the internet pointing fingers and *rollingeyes*

Samaris · 15-06-2016 06:36PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

He's most likely never been outside his mommy's bedsit, just sits on the internet pointing fingers and *rollingeyes*

Pah, bedsit? I have my own basement, thank you very much! It's coated in cheetos dust, ofc.

Okay, fair enough on the night-time. You're still being an arse of the first water though.

Weirdly enough, I can actually feel pity for a family that have lost a baby in a horrendous fashion. And I certainly wouldn't make horrible comments suggesting that the father just went "oh well, one gone, I'll report it to the lifeguard sure. Don't want to be risking my fingernails." or whatever bull**** you think happened.

15-06-2016 06:38PM

Whilst we're on the topic of Flordian sunsets, the sun actually 'goes down faster' in Florida, because of the higher velocity of rotation close to the Earth's equator.

So in Ireland, one hour after sunset, there might still be quite a bit of residual light in the sky. Not so in Florida. One hour after sunset is really dark, because of the closer proximity to the equator.

Northern Europeans who visit places like Florida will often remark on the speed of the sunsets.

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 06:38PM

Samaris wrote: »

Pah, bedsit? I have my own basement, thank you very much! It's coated in cheetos dust, ofc.

Okay, fair enough on the night-time. You're still being an arse of the first water though.

Don't respond to me again, I don't respond to your smug know it all but know nothing type

ClovenHoof · 15-06-2016 06:39PM

failinis wrote: »

I hope they can get their child back so they can atleast have a grave to go to.
Read this as soon as I woke up and..its just unthinkable. Poor parents

The child is gator pooh now. I can't imagine the horror of the family seeing this.

Sleepy · 15-06-2016 06:42PM

ScumLord wrote: »

Alligators are quite small when they're young. Disney could probably no more guarantee there's no alligators in their lakes than they could guarantee there's no snakes or lizards anywhere in their park. It would be like being surprised to find a fox in Tayto park. The fact the disney lakes are somewhat protected from large alligators just wandering in probably just makes them an ideal spot for young alligators to grow up.

Flippyfloppy wrote: »

What sort of system? There's alligators everywhere in Florida. They travel from lake to lake.

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Really, that opinion is based on the satelite view??? This is the area BTW. The water is rotten, but the beach area is lovely.

That beach looks, much like the rest of Disneyland, to be a sanitised and "safe" place.

If there's no way of making the lake uninhabitable for alligators (e.g. chlorination or some other form of chemical treatment, fencing and filtration systems etc.) it should be massively flagged that the water isn't safe to venture near. True, it's Florida where locals are aware that any body of water is potentially dangerous but Walt Disney World attracts visitors from all over the world who aren't used to living with that danger. TBH, having never been there, I didn't know that there were aligators outside of localised areas of swamp and as a parent who's brought their kids to Disneyland Paris in the past (and who'd have loved to bring them to Florida at some stage), it's a little frightening that they seem to have such a laissez faire attitude to the situation.

Sure, humans are the apex predator of the planet but alligators wouldn't be far off in terms of the water and in a resort primarily built for children, it seems obscene to not have walled/fenced off access to the water or at the very, very least not to have massive signs up to notify anyone there that the water was home to potentially man-eating predators.

ClovenHoof · 15-06-2016 06:42PM

A Tyrant Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Whilst we're on the topic of Flordian sunsets, the sun actually 'goes down faster' in Florida, because of the higher velocity of rotation close to the Earth's equator.
.

It is because the 'terminator' is more defined the closer you are to the equator.

Up here the terminator is more graduated and spills more over the horizon.

Samaris · 15-06-2016 06:46PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

Don't respond to me again, I don't respond to your smug know it all but know nothing type

I would say that I don't respond to people making ****e up for the sake of getting up on their own (smug indeed) high horses to point fingers at a grieving family, yet alas, here I am.

The reports as I have read them indicate that the poor kid was on the beach, with his family, in their sight. Obviously he was close enough to the water that he could be snatched, but a family from the remarkably alligator-free state of Nebraska would probably not consider that even a possibility. The father went in after him and hunted for his toddler, his child, that he just saw grabbed by a bloody huge reptile, and when he failed, reported it to the nearest authority there.

YOU managed to imply that the kid was having a moonlit swim in alligator infested waters and when he was grabbed by an alligator, as ofc, anyone would expect to have happen (sarcasm alert), his father was more keen on saving his own skin than that of his child and ambled off to let a lifeguard know that, oh yeah, there's a child-snatching alligator somewhere over there.

And you call me smug for an error on sunset. Daymn.

Also, I'll respond to any rubbish I wish to, while also admitting my own factual errors (as shocking a notion as this is). Rubbish is probably the optimal word though.

Flippyfloppy · 15-06-2016 06:47PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

I do and from that I take it you value your life over that of your childs

I do not. It's pretty obvious that the attack would have been over very quickly , with the alligator retreating to the murky depths rapidly. Also, I'm pretty sure plenty of the other holidaymakers there would have already been calling for the guard, no where does it say that the parents shrugged and gave up and asked the lifeguard to give it a go.

ScumLord · 15-06-2016 06:52PM

Sleepy wrote: »

If there's no way of making the lake uninhabitable for alligators (e.g. chlorination or some other form of chemical treatment, fencing and filtration systems etc.) it should be massively flagged that the water isn't safe to venture near.

Definitely should have. I would be shocked if this is the first issue Disney has ever had with alligators at this park. I'm sure they knew about the gators. I wonder did some middle management dislike signs that said "alligators" in their park in case pictures ended up on social media?

People should probably be made aware of the dangers coming into the state. Warning signs at airports, state lines, train stations. All it would have taken to save this boy's life would be a bit of awareness.

scream · 15-06-2016 06:54PM

Sleepy wrote: »

That beach looks, much like the rest of Disneyland, to be a sanitised and "safe" place.

If there's no way of making the lake uninhabitable for alligators (e.g. chlorination or some other form of chemical treatment, fencing and filtration systems etc.) it should be massively flagged that the water isn't safe to venture near. True, it's Florida where locals are aware that any body of water is potentially dangerous but Walt Disney World attracts visitors from all over the world who aren't used to living with that danger. TBH, having never been there, I didn't know that there were aligators outside of localised areas of swamp and as a parent who's brought their kids to Disneyland Paris in the past (and who'd have loved to bring them to Florida at some stage), it's a little frightening that they seem to have such a laissez faire attitude to the situation.

Sure, humans are the apex predator of the planet but alligators wouldn't be far off in terms of the water and in a resort primarily built for children, it seems obscene to not have walled/fenced off access to the water or at the very, very least not to have massive signs up to notify anyone there that the water was home to potentially man-eating predators.

Yes, lets build giant fences/walls around anything potentially dangerous. :rolleyes: It's possible to drown in only 1 foot of water and it's a parents responsibility to take care of their child, particularly around water or any other potentially dangerous area. They let the child go into the water alone and the child is dead. Now a number of alligators have been killed, the child is still dead and more alligators will be killed because those parents failed in their duty as parents.

Not unlike the situation with a Gorilla being killed because a child fell into the enclosure at a zoo or the lions shot dead because some idiot jumped in where he shouldn't have been. There's a pattern there, humans do stupid stuff and animals get killed as a result. The child is dead and that's awful, hopefully it'll make other parents more aware.

metaoblivia · 15-06-2016 07:10PM

ScumLord wrote: »

Definitely should have. I would be shocked if this is the first issue Disney has ever had with alligators at this park. I'm sure they knew about the gators. I wonder did some middle management dislike signs that said "alligators" in their park in case pictures ended up on social media?

People should probably be made aware of the dangers coming into the state. Warning signs at airports, state lines, train stations. All it would have taken to save this boy's life would be a bit of awareness.

I'm wondering the same. A few years ago someone took video of a pretty substantial alligator swimming in that same lake. I know Disney has a policy of removing any larger gators that get in, so they know that gators are there. The lagoon is connected via waterway to a larger natural lake called Bay Lake. I think it would be virtually impossible to be sure that 100% of alligators are kept out (they can climb/chew through fences, walk around any barriers put up in the water, etc).

I think it's likely Disney didn't want to scare any guests by putting up "Beware of Alligator" signs and probably thought they had the situation under control enough so that they didn't need them. Obviously that has been done away with.

wakka12 · 15-06-2016 07:31PM

Oafley Jones wrote: »

Horrible. I'm surprised they don't have signs, but I've never seen one at WDW. I think the mistake here is that they just assume that people wil be wary of any open bit of water. WDW is built around a giant man made lake called the Seven Seas Lagoon, with a bunch of hotels around the circumference. It's essentially a swamp. I know people used to go swimming in it, but the look alone should put you off going near it. Gators manage to get into the Parks themselves quite often. They're also protected, so it's a bit of an ordeal to get them moved on. It is their habitat after all.

Disney had signs up near bodies of water in the park that said strictly no swimming.
But a 'Warning - Alligator infested waters' would have been much more effective..

Shred · 15-06-2016 09:30PM

Absolutely horrific story, I can only begin to imagine what the parents are going through and this is sure to haunt them for the rest of their lives. Imagine being the father who fought in vain to rescue his son, you'd never forgive yourself even though there was very likely little he could do to stop a predator as ferocious as a Gator once it had the child in its jaws.
I was in WDW 4 weeks ago and had dinner in the '1900 fare' in the Grand Floridian resort. One of the things on our itinerary that we didn't get to do was a camp fire sing along with Chip and Dale (who my 4 year old son idolises). This takes place on the beach of the Polynesian resort which is between the Magic Kingdom and the GF and borders the same body of water as where this tradegy occurred; talk about chills at the thoughts of what happened last night. I personally never would have considered a threat like this from a gator within the parks despite knowing their presence is quite common in Florida.

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 10:19PM

The boy's body found... http://kfor.com/2016/06/15/toddlers-body-recovered-after-alligator-attack-near-disney-world-hotel/

The boy’s family was at movie night outdoors at the Grand Floridian resort when around 9 p.m. the boy waded into about a foot of water in a lagoon

I can't comprehend the sheer stupidity of it

ScumLord · 15-06-2016 11:02PM

sonofenoch wrote: »

I can't comprehend the sheer stupidity of it

I'm not. I don't know how any children make it into adulthood. Toddlers are mad as badgers. Look away for 1 second and they're gone. Leave them somewhere you think is safe enough and they find a way to make it dangerous. The only way to keep them safe would be to lock them in a box and then you just end up ruining their lives.

retro:electro · 15-06-2016 11:22PM

The parents are getting a lot of flack. Look, they were at Disney land, it's probable that they were lured into a false sense of reality and perhaps thought, "alligators in Florida, sure, but not in Disney land". Coupled with the fact that this was a man made lake, which many would misinterpret as not having any alligators in it. Also, there were no warning signs up. There's no point saying they should have done this and they should have done that, I'm sure they know that, and I'm sure it will eat them up for the rest of their lives. They were at Disney "the happiest place on earth", they forgot about real life dangers momentarily. RIP to the little boy.

sonofenoch · 15-06-2016 11:27PM

ScumLord wrote: »

I'm not. I don't know how any children make it into adulthood. Toddlers are mad as badgers. Look away for 1 second and they're gone. Leave them somewhere you think is safe enough and they find a way to make it dangerous. The only way to keep them safe would be to lock them in a box and then you just end up ruining their lives.

Sure things happen, but surely you take into account the environment and factor it in unless you're stupid and I mean really stupid like a poster on here who thought Florida time runs concurrent with Irish time

Flippyfloppy · 15-06-2016 11:29PM

wakka12 wrote: »

Disney had signs up near bodies of water in the park that said strictly no swimming.
But a 'Warning - Alligator infested waters' would have been much more effective..

Or 'no standing near the waters edge'

rainbowtrout · 15-06-2016 11:48PM

RTE are reporting that the child's body was found intact. At least that's something for the parents, that they know he wasn't eaten by the alligator

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0615/795683-alligator-disney-hotel/

metaoblivia · 15-06-2016 11:54PM

rainbowtrout wrote: »

RTE are reporting that the child's body was found intact. At least that's something for the parents, that they know he wasn't eaten by the alligator

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0615/795683-alligator-disney-hotel/

I almost mentioned it in my first post, but gators like to drown their larger catches and then store them somewhere so they get mushy and are easier to eat. Could have been the case here or the gator may have simply been scared off by all of the commotion that followed. Either way, not surprised the body was found intact. That's a very small consolation for the family. The big paycheck from Disney will be another small consolation.

2 year old taken by alligator at Disney Land resort Florida hotel

Comments