Toddler Taken by Alligator at Disney in Florida

[BwareDWare94 723]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/15/us/alligator-attacks-child-disney-florida/index.html

 

 

If you're going to be a parent, it is prudent that you understand your surroundings, especially when you're away from home. Bodies of water in Florida? Gators. There were No Swimming signs.

[Milla4Prez63 678]

I know someone who works at the Grand Floridian, it was his day off but his phone was blowing up hardcore over this.

​This is a sad story, but ultimately that alligator was just going off natural instincts and needed to eat. Again, another tragedy due to the stupidity of human parents.

[RazorStar 4,025]

When I was 2 years old I was punching sharks in the nose and drinking whiskey. These parents are the worst.

[Bucman 891]

Blaming the parents is idiotic.

[BwareDWare94 723]

Blaming the parents is idiotic.

 

It is not. There were no swimming signs, and even if there hadn't been, they should have known better. It's fucking Florida. Don't let your kid go into murky water. Common sense.

 

Nevertheless, it's not the time to pile on the parents, either. They already have to live with it.

[oochymp 2,393]

it's Florida and they're from Nebraska, I don't know that it's entirely reasonable to expect tourists to know all of the local hazards, I know "alligators" wouldn't be my first thought in seeing a "No Swimming" sign, and I suspect it wasn't theirs either

[Piggly Wiggly 960]

This wasn't exactly neglect on the parents. Kid went a foot deep in the water in a man made lagoon. You don't expect a fucking gator to pop out of nowhere, this ain't the Everglades lol. Both parents tried to fight the gator off too, so it's not like they let him out of their site.

[CampinWithaMissingPerson 2,025]

Gators get in any and all bodies of water around here. Water isn't safe, something you learn being born and growing up here. On one of the days I had to do deliveries because our drivers were overwhelmed and I'm in this rich gated community and suddenly a woman is standing the middle of the road and not moving so I slow down and roll down my window. She asks immediately if she can get in my backseat and if I can drive her across this little bridge over a man-made creek deal. I'm like "Uhhh.... okaaaaaay....?" Well apparently she was jogging on the sidewalk and almost ran into this guy:

 

 

I gave her the ride, made the delivery and came back to snap this pic lol. After I took off I saw a dude walking this tiny dog on the same sidewalk around the corner and I had to stop by and tell him to either turn around or cross the road because there's atleast a 7 foot gator waiting for your dog around the corner

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

This is a terrible situation.. While the parents must bare the responsibility here, I am not going to pile on or anything. Burying a child has to be one of the hardest things anyone ever has to do.

[BwareDWare94 723]

Reports are that the child was found completely intact, and they assume the gator released the boy after he quit moving.

[Vin+ 3,121]

The fact that the dad tried to fight off the gator and couldn't makes this even more tragic. Losing a child is bad enough, but how do you get over that?

[BwareDWare94 723]

The fact that the dad tried to fight off the gator and couldn't makes this even more tragic. Losing a child is bad enough, but how do you get over that?

There was really nothing he could do. I don't think any human is actually capable of prying open a gator's jaws. You could potentially hold their mouth open but you can't open it. Hopefully the poor guy can come to terms with the fact that he gave it his best effort. Trying to hold the thing in shallow water would have been easier than opening its mouth. He reacted as most would in the moment. Thing alligator's teeth presented the biggest threat, not its mass.

Edited June 16, 2016 by BwareDWare94

[Bucman 891]

It is not. There were no swimming signs, and even if there hadn't been, they should have known better. It's fucking Florida. Don't let your kid go into murky water. Common sense.

Nevertheless, it's not the time to pile on the parents, either. They already have to live with it.

 

so if your child is attacked by a jellyfish while swimming in the ocean, it's your fault too? You act like the fucking kid was swimming in the water. He wasn't and the father was right there. Shit happens, this was a freak accident.

[CampinWithaMissingPerson 2,025]

Yeah with a 2 year old and how it happened, prob not much you could do, damage was done by surprise. With Gators if you step on their head/neck they can't bite you because their jaw only opens from the bottom. Key if yall ever find yourself toe to toe with one Also if chased run in a zig zag/juke pattern, they struggle to move laterally. Stuff you learn as a kid in Flerda from a young age

[Milla4Prez63 678]

A 2 year old shouldn't be near the water anyways. It isn't a pool, it's water in a state that is well known for it's giant carnivorous lizards. I don't want to sound like an asshole, but if I had a two year old I wouldn't let them run in the water on it's own.

[.AirMcNair. 1,232]

All these past 5 days have told me is Florida has got to go.

 

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

it's Florida and they're from Nebraska, I don't know that it's entirely reasonable to expect tourists to know all of the local hazards, I know "alligators" wouldn't be my first thought in seeing a "No Swimming" sign, and I suspect it wasn't theirs either

Being from Nebraska isn't an excuse, lol. If you grow up in Nebraska you grow up around lakes and shit and you know well not to swim anywhere with a "No swimming" sign. At my niece's softball game tonight a large group of parents were talking about this and they were all in agreement that the parents should've heeded the sign.

[Milla4Prez63 678]

The water there is gross, full of swampy grass and algae anways. Not a place for a toddler at all.

[Cherry 1,302]

Is Florida cursed during summers or something?

[RazorStar 4,025]

Is Florida cursed?

 

Yes.

[ATL_Predator+ 1,196]

This wasn't exactly neglect on the parents. Kid went a foot deep in the water in a man made lagoon. You don't expect a fucking gator to pop out of nowhere, this ain't the Everglades lol. Both parents tried to fight the gator off too, so it's not like they let him out of their site.

 

This is spoken as someone that's never lived in Florida. If there's a body of water, gators will most likely be there and if they aren't there at the moment...they will be eventually.

[oochymp 2,393]

Being from Nebraska isn't an excuse, lol. If you grow up in Nebraska you grow up around lakes and shit and you know well not to swim anywhere with a "No swimming" sign. At my niece's softball game tonight a large group of parents were talking about this and they were all in agreement that the parents should've heeded the sign.

Well good for you and your friends, and I do think most parents would try to be aware of the main dangers their children could encounter while on vacation, but I'm not going to criticize someone for not knowing. I also didn't mean to imply that Nebraskans don't know what to do around water, just that they're probably not used to watching out for seven foot death lizards. I know I usually assume that unless they say something else "no swimming" signs just mean that the property owners don't want liability for people drowning and I'm guessing that's what they figured too.

 

FTR, here's the sign:

 

That doesn't make me think that wading into a foot-deep section of the water would be dangerous.

[Zack_of_Steel+ 3,014]

There are a lot of reasons to heed a "No swimming" sign besides liability, lmao. As I said, being from Nebraska (the point you brought up), you know inherently not to fuck around with those signs. A lot of lakes have giant, immediate dropoffs where wading into a foot of water near the shore turns into being submerged in 8 ft. Plenty of water has hazards and shit to cut you up or get you caught. Some areas have currents that change in a certain spot and will sweep you under. There aren't gators here, but there are wildlife areas not to be disturbed. "No swimming" means a hell of a lot more than, "hey, can you not drown here?"

 

Furhermore, Florida being riddled with alligators is common knowledge. There are a lot of wooded areas in Nebraska, if they had wandered past some bear habitat sign would they also be absovled of guilt because they're not from bear country?

[Thanatos 2,847]

Yeah but the kid wasn't swimming. He was in a foot of water. There were plenty of No Swimming signs in Hawaii that I ignored and went tidepooling or shit and people were fine with it. The No Swimming signs were because of ridiculous undertoe in that area, in this case. It meant no swimming, not "don't barely walk in the water at all."

 

You don't expect to die by going into a foot of water next to a No Swimming sign, and I hardly think its fair to blast the parents for this. The bear habitat analogy doesn't work, because this sign didn't say, Warning: Alligators live in this lake, or something to that effect, and in fact that's not even the reason the No Swimming sign was up. The water was too dirty for people to swim in it.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Thanatos

[Favre4Ever+ 4,476]

Common sense is a hard thing to come by. This is why coffee cups come with a "Warning: the contents of this cup may be hot" label on them.