@partyof5 - Maybe the guy in the Orlando Sentinel article didn’t see the alligator and only “saw the commotion afterwards” but according to the Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings, there were multiple eyewitnesses who did:
Are you really doubting this happened?!?!
@SyrAlum Im not doubting it happened that was another poster that raised the possibility. I was just stating the link you posted as evidence, really wasnt good evidence because he didnt see it happen.
CNN just reported that the child’s body has been found.
It’s not that people from the midwest don’t know that there are gators and whatnot, it’s just not something that’s probably constantly on our minds like it would be for people in Florida. It’s not part of our daily lives.
Yes, they just confirmed they found the remains. How horrible
In florida, it is legal to have a gun (pistol, sidearm)whenever you are fishing or hunting, or traveling to do so. It can’t be a concealed weapon (unless you have a permit for one) but must be viable at all times and I believe in a holster and not in a bag or carry case. It’s dangerous fishing from piers, docks, boats. Big snakes, big gators. Sharks if you are ocean fishing.
As I said, we shared an office with the Florida Wildlife and Fisheries division. I worked for the federal government and we weren’t allow to have ANY weapons in our possession, even in our cars parked in the lot or garage (which I’m sure more than a few of my co-workers violated daily) but the Florida boys were armed to the teeth. Big guns, stunning things, mace on their belts. I saw more than a handful of shotguns and rifles in the halls. They had to have decontamination showers installed on the first floor because some of the places they went were contaminated. The area we were in was an office park, designed with walking paths around D the ponds, manicured lawns, very park lime. I saw huge raccoons, armadillos, fox, feral cats, and of course the gator almost daily.
Once a swamp…
Regarding the assumption that the " quality of water not being good " rather than alligators . Why would someone allow their child or anyone else in water with “poor quality” placing them at risk for infection and other health issues? It was movie night, but the family clearly was not watching the movie, the child was wading in the water. The alligator did not come up on land, it pulled the child under in the water. Again, it’s a terrible , awful event , but one that could’ve easily been avoided with increased diligence of a toddler who should’ve never been in the water. IMO. I hope that the family can properly grieve now that the remains have been recovered.
D2 texted today to remind me of the time I let her paddle around at age 3 in a inland bay on Cayo Costa Island in FL. Our friends said it was okay… next day I was walking around the bay, and saw a sign warning of gators in the water. The signs were not on the obvious route to the bay from the campground. She still brings it up when she wants to tease me for being a bad mom. Not so funny today…
If you click on this link it shows an overhead shot of the little “beach” that the toddler was grabbed from. It looks very Disney-safe to the untrained eye. Not like a murky green-brown swamp that could hide all sorts of nasty things, especially things that would come out onto the nice smooth edges. I can see how they were fooled into thinking that going just into the edge of the water would be OK.
http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/47/43/27/10368491/3/1024x1024.jpg
midwesterner here: we’ve done airboat tours in FL and know there’s alligators; but never would think about one being on a man-made lake on disney property. we’d chalk up the “no-swimming” sign to just that – do not swim with your head underwater or feet off the ground; probably because of water quality. wading would never occur to me as “do not swim.”
I’ve been thinking about this all day. The local radio station was making sort of light it around noon – Like “can you believe this crazy thing happened?” and i contacted them promptly; mentioning that people in their listening area might know this family, and it’s not a laughing matter.
Of course people from the Midwest, and Southwest, and Pacific Northwest, and New England know about alligators in Florida, as do people from France and Japan and India. People do not expect to encounter them at a Disney resort, especially in an area where people are gathered for a movie, and where there is a man-made beach just asking to be walked on barefoot. In addition, I don’t even think people in Florida are particularly scrupulous about avoiding bodies of water when there are no recent reports of alligators in that particular area. Alligators on golf courses are a known hazard, but does no one ever go near the water hazards to retrieve a ball? Do families never play on or near the water, and are all Florida toddlers on short leashes or in backpacks? I don’t think so. I wasn’t.
This was a terrible and sad freak tragedy. Putting the blame on clueless Midwestern parents, as though wiser parents would have been more careful, is unbecoming. Life is risky. People die young. It’s horrible, but there is not always blame, and it’s ok for a terrible thing to happen without its being anyone’s fault.
@MomofJandL (((claps)), you expressed my sentiments exactly. I think because it was a disney resort with a manmade lake would lead one to believe there are no gators. Hence my point that Disney is on the hook for not having signs up. I just watched the news conference and apparently the wildlife rep said they get them off the property frequently, and sometimes disney employees are able to wrangle them, and they just pick them up after they get the call. So clearly Disney was aware gators are there, and they did not warn the patrons.
Latest news reports that the child’s body was recovered " intact" with most likely cause of death as drowning . Also reports that the child was in a foot of water ( wading for a an adult , but hardly for a toddler who probably doesn’t have the best balance to begin with) while both parents were on the beach 20-30 feet away. It was movie night , but very few people were on the beach . Nighttime, water and unsupervised toddler is not a good combination, alligator or not.
Considering that this family had small children, this is probably young parents in their 20th. They did not expect something like this happen at the “happiest place on Earth”. This is not child left in a hot car case. This could easily happen to anyone.
Initial reports said the family had 5 children. If this is true, they were hardly inexperienced parents. I don’t know too many parents who would knowingly be twenty to thirty feet from a two year old, especially In a public place in the dark
They’re saying a family of 4.
If the midwestern comments were referring to me, I am truly sorry if my comments made it sound like the parents were culpable. I wasn’t trying to say anything of the sort. I’m just saying that it’s likely not something that would constantly be on a person’s mind if it’s not something they’re used to.
And count me as another that would take “no swimming” as just that- no swimming. Not “DO NOT ENTER THE WATER”
But I do apologize if anyone thought I was blaming the parents. I think this was just a horrific accident all the way around.
There seem to be differing reports of how deep the water was that the child was wading in. Some said a few inches. Some said a foot. The only thing I have read about the family is that they also had a 4 year old daughter. Have not read anything about 5 kids. Have read that the daughter was in a playpen 30-40 yards away. What I read is that he was wading in the water’s edge, perhaps a foot from shore, in maybe a few inches to perhaps a foot of water (reports are unclear). Reports have said that the mother and father tried to grab the child when the gator got him, so its hard to picture that they were extremely far away. http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/15/us/alligator-attacks-child-disney-florida/
@alwaysamom Not a Floridian, but I am very aware of the many gators in Floridian residential communities. I’ve seen dozens of stories of people finding gators in their backyards, on their porches, in the pools… Perhaps I just watch morning news shows too much. I thought the high gator population was common knowledge. I mean, their best state college’s team is the Florida * Gators*. Even if it wasn’t common knowledge, you’ve gotta know better than to let your two year old play in a foot of murky water, out of your reach in the middle of the night when a sign says “No Swimming.” You have to know better as a parent. It’s your job to know better. And it’s not even comparable to Harambe the gorilla being killed. The parents put this innocent child who can’t read into the water and he suffered as a result. Heaven gained another angel.
Most recent news story
The 2-year-old boy who witnesses said was pulled by an alligator into a lagoon near a Walt Disney World hotel has been found dead by the Orange County dive team, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings told reporters at a Wednesday news conference in Orlando.
…
The most recent report I’ve seen, an Orlando Sentinel article dated late this afternoon, says: “In response to reports the family was watching a hotel-sponsored movie near the shore, Disney said it hosts such events but believed the film ended before the attack. The family was sitting near the water in a play area and the child somehow got in the water, officials said.” http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-child-dragged-alligator-disney-20160614-story.html
This afternoon the NYTimes reported: “The boy had waded into the water at the edge of the lagoon with his mother, father and 4-year-old sister when the alligator pulled him away, the sheriff said.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/16/us/alligator-child-florida-orlando-disney.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
As with any news story that draws national attention, there will be speculation and conflicting reports until an investigation is concluded. For those who feel blame is necessary, why not wait until then? My heart breaks for this family, and I wish them peace.
