Sheriff: Body of boy attacked by gator found at Disney

USA Today, WTSP ^ | 6-15-2016 | William Cummings

[murron]

ORLANDO — The boy of a 2-year-old boy attacked by an alligator near a beach late Tuesday has been found near the Grand Floridian Hotel at Walt Disney World.

[Ann Archy]

It’s FLORIDUH!!! There are MILLIONS of GATORS!!!!!! EVERY body of fresh water can have a gator in it!!

[mkjessup]

In Florida there are gators in any body large enough to support a gator.

When my parents retired to Florida back in '88, they had a stone lawn ornament of an alligator, and for laughs my Dad painted it in realistic colors.

One morning, my Mom says to my Dad, "did you buy a second lawn gator?" and they looked out the window to see a REAL alligator that had made it's way from some local canal or tributary, up to their front lawn, and was trying to mate with the concrete gator. After a call to the game warden, the gator was captured and taken away.

I can only imagine the stories that gator told later in life, "why there I was tryin' to make time with this sweet lookin' thing, and she was cold as effin' concrete!"

[HotHunt]

See my comment #40 on this thread.

[wtd]

No reason to think Disney stocked any of their canals, lagoons, lakes or puddles with live alligators.

We own Disney property and spend some time there every couple of years. In the last two to three decades it is rare to see a fly or bee in the resort areas - certainly never any live gators. Although we have witnessed gators near the edge of highway leading to parks - near canals which drain the swamp and are interconnected.

Gators are migratory animals and freely move from familiar terrain into populated areas...and don't usually

• ring the doorbell to announce their arrival (I kid you not).

  Gators can climb trees (but don't routinely) too. Creepy creatures, they. Disney will likely re-visit their animal control protocol - albeit too late for this family.

• A couple of weeks ago, an enormous alligator was videotaped strolling across a golf course in broad daylight.

[fella]

It’s what gators do. They drown their prey then tuck it somewhere under water so that it can ripen until they come back to feed.

[umgud]

Two things I really don’t like about FL; Gators and really big snakes.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Gators will many times age their kill for a few days before eating it. Thank God the child was not mutilated.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Exactly. Same with that gorilla.

Look, I love animals and would love to save even the big predators as much as possible, but sometimes a choice must be made.

And the choice must be for the human.

[Inyo-Mono]

Pretty common among crocs in Australia and Africa too.

[Old Grumpy]

Being a Florida cracker, I’ve encountered many, many gators over my years here. I’ve even had a couple of small ones, that wandered up from the Hillsborough River, in my yard years ago. You’ve always got to be on the lookout for them, because they are everywhere. And never, ever feed them.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Hurricanes.

My part of the mid-Atlantic is about the most ideal place on earth. None of that garbage. Meanwhile my old friend just moved there last year. She hates a couple inches of snow a year.

[Robert DeLong]

I am very aware of that fact, same here in Louisiana. People go swimming in the water with them here too, not me, no way!!!

Apparently they pulled out several alligators, and now they will all be killed. I can hear the screaming already.

My point is that they should stress to people to not go into the water because the likelihood of the waters containing one or more alligators is high.

[infowarrior]

Having gone to high school and college in Florida, I recall learning that gators don't immediately eat their catch. Gators drag it under the water to drown, and then they leave it for a day in two to decompose before eating it. That's probably why they found the body intact.

Yep. Lucky they found the poor little guy before then, or there would not have been much to recover...

the infowarrior

[Robert DeLong]

I doubt Disney put them in there. They climb in there themselves. My point is why there are no signs warning that there could very well be gators in the water. People from other areas that do not have those creatures, do not think about the possibility.

[Robert DeLong]

Yeah, being from Louisiana I am aware of that, and you are right, people not used to these creatures would not think about them. My point was why they do not warm people that the waters may contain gators. Maybe they do, I don’t know. But I stay out of the water here in Louisiana even though others do go in the water. I can think of other ways to go, thank you very much. The parents learned a lesson a very hard way, and it is so sad.

[WHBates]

Squatting I suppose? This is Florida don’t you know, they are everywhere. I don’t think they thought of asking permission from the property owner, the entire concept maybe beyond their understanding.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[masadaman]

I spent the first 22 years of my life in old Miami just off what is now Calle Ocho and was then the Tamiami Trail, ‘the trail.’ Alligators are either hungry or lazy. When they are hungry, they can move quickly and can be found 300 meters or more from water, three football fields. At the famous Serpentarium where the local Seminole boys put on a ‘wrestling a gator’ show, my job at the local market included delivering dozens of frozen chickens so that Bill Haas, the owner and legendary cobra venom collector, could stuff a gator with 3 or 4 chickens before the show. Soon the gators became lazy and sleepy and you too could wrestle a gator.

[GRRRRR]

If Disney has NOT been clearing gators from a MAN MADE LAKE with actual beaches intended for swimming, then somebody else gonna on Disney!

[cll]

I’m never moving to Florida...