Officials believe they've captured alligator that killed boy

[RoosGirl]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/officials-believe-theyve-captured-alligator-that-killed-boy/ar-AAhu5nR?ocid=spartanntp

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Florida wildlife officials believe they've captured the alligator that dragged a 2-year-old Nebraska boy into the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney World.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a news release Wednesday that it has suspended alligator trapping activities in the area. The release says officials have based their conclusions on expert analyses and observations by staff with extensive experience in investigating fatal alligator bites. A total of six alligators were removed.


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[RoosGirl]

That's good.  That story just breaks my heart.  How in the world do you recover from something like that (the family)?

I have no idea.  I'm not sure you do? 

[Idiot]

I have no idea.  I'm not sure you do?

There has to be a way to fence them out of the Disney area lakes or hunt them until there aren't any left around there.  No way I'd let a kid near that water.....no way.

Just breaks your heart to read about them losing their child.

[RoosGirl]

There has to be a way to fence them out of the Disney area lakes or hunt them until there aren't any left around there.  No way I'd let a kid near that water.....no way.

Just breaks your heart to read about them losing their child.

There are a lot of interconnected lakes and canals there.  Particularly in mating season there's just no way to contain the gators.  Gators can even climb chain link fences.  Maybe the state would allow them late night hunts, but really, the area is just huge and given Disney's need to maintain a certain reputation it would have to be very discrete.  Can you imagine your average northerner, there with kids, paying hundreds of dollars per night for any of the hotels that are on the lagoon and seeing someone out wrangling a gator?  There's no way they could be 100% sure there were no gators.  Besides that, there's the water moccasins. 

[RoosGirl]

Look at the size of the lakes just on Disney property.  It's not just the Seven Seas Lagoon, that Disney man made.  I think they say it took 7 years to build it.  It's connected to Bay Lake.  There's the small ponds at the adjacent golf courses, plus any of the canals that connect, about 70 lakes/ponds and 10 canals within the about 80 square mile Shingle Creek drainage basin.

[RoosGirl]

I don't even understand the question.  LOL. 

As for Disney, they should hire life guards like they do for swimming pools.  It's an idea anyway.  At least for the areas closest to the hotels.

I was talking about the family.  How devastated they must be.  That father must replay the event over and over in his mind, trying to think of how he could have saved his kid.  The death of a child is always tragic.  It's just that some circumstances make it even harder.  Like suicide.  Like murder.  Like this event.  All the circumstances surrounding it just take the knife that is death and twists it in your gut for years and years to come.  I have some limited observation experience on this matter.  I wish I didn't.

Hah, it should have been "I'm not sure you do." No question mark on the end.  Meaning, I'm not sure you recover from such a thing happening.

[musiclady]

That's good.  That story just breaks my heart.  How in the world do you recover from something like that (the family)?

They never will............

[musiclady]

Exactly.  I'm so sad for them.

This is as heartbreaking a story as I can imagine.  The horror of what this family has gone through, unthinkable.

We need to keep praying for them, and even with prayer, they will not fully recover, nor understand from a human standpoint why it happened.

[geronl]

How can they tell one from another, they all look alike to me

[WAC]

I'm not sure you recover from such a thing happening.

I agree....some happenings in live at best you 'learn' to live with over a long period of time...but you never "recover"......not possible this side of heaven.

[WAC]

I'm laughing hard at myself...my spelling has been all over the map for days now...LOLOLOL....I get so caught up in what I'm thinking to then transfer to this keyboard, which my "M' is broken.....they're just slipping by me every time !!!

How we fret over insignificant things when this family lifve with this happening moment by moment...and sometimes probably not even that.

My nephew had a riding lawnmower blade slash thru his skull.......the father was mowing some high grass on an embankment and the kid ran up behind it just as he put it in reverse..... Grandmother never saw him running at first...when she saw him going up the hill she yelled his name so loud nobody knew she had that in her.....it was too late. He couldn't hear because of the tractor noise.

Of course they raced hi to the hospital.....where he was declared dead.......very soon a police officer arrived and said to the father...'...How could you do this to your son"........the Boys father was an outstanding Dad as well as individual in the community.  But imagine what the parents felt........some things are beyond comprehension....they just are and you never recover fully.

[WAC]

Yes it was......I remember going to see the parents soon after.....to say they were a wreck doesn't touch it.......physicians gave them both sedatives but you cannot sedate that form of trauma loss, you just can't.

When it happened , this was on a very large property of several acreas....so it was some distance from the house.....the Grandmother was extremely hard of hearing, even with her hearing aide......but 'she heard' the fathers gut wretching scream as he ran down the hill with the boy in his arms.... At five years old..The boy was the apple of his dads eye.

I could not imagine the 6 mile drive holding this lad......nor what they were experiencing as they drove. But the hospital staff heard the father's desperate shouts before they even got  thu the hospital entrance.  There wasn't a single hospital staff member who wasn't affected by this entire dreadful situation. ...he died of a lacerated brain so there was no hope.

These types of happenings are seared in your brain.....they never go away entirely. 
This vacationing couple, who now lost their son thru this horrible accident  will forever have this happening etched in their minds..it will fade but it will never go away.

[RoosGirl]

Goodness.  The words are certainly inadequate, but I'm so sorry for what your family went through.

[Neverdul]

There has to be a way to fence them out of the Disney area lakes or hunt them until there aren't any left around there.  No way I'd let a kid near that water.....no way.

Just breaks your heart to read about them losing their child.

There are a lot of interconnected lakes and canals there.  Particularly in mating season there's just no way to contain the gators.  Gators can even climb chain link fences.  Maybe the state would allow them late night hunts, but really, the area is just huge and given Disney's need to maintain a certain reputation it would have to be very discrete.  Can you imagine your average northerner, there with kids, paying hundreds of dollars per night for any of the hotels that are on the lagoon and seeing someone out wrangling a gator?  There's no way they could be 100% sure there were no gators.  Besides that, there's the water moccasins.

Even if it were possible (and I don’t think it would be) for the FWC and Disney to kill every alligator within a 100-mile radius of the park, it would not be long before more found their way in.  And yes, alligators can climb fences.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Qp_bUYPrTg

I understand that Disney does regularly remove alligators from their property once they get over a certain size (4ft?) or become a “nuisance” but they are, captured, removed and relocated, not killed.  But perhaps with the number of them, culling their numbers instead of catch and release makes sense.

But yes to RoosGirl’s point, that is done as “discreetly” as possible. Late night hunts with guns?  I can see some little kid at one of the hotels waking up hearing the late night gun shots. “Mommy! Daddy! I want to go see the fireworks.”  “Those aren’t fireworks you’re hearing Johnny. It’s men with guns shooting a bunch of man-eating alligators. Go back to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow. We’re going on Splash Mountain.”

[Neverdul]

How we fret over insignificant things when this family lifve with this happening moment by moment...and sometimes probably not even that.

My nephew had a riding lawnmower blade slash thru his skull...

How awful. My sincere condolences to you and your family. Life is precious and an accident like that can happen in the blink of an eye.

“very soon a police officer arrived and said to the father...'...How could you do this to your son"”

Wow. How completely insensitive and unwarranted for the cop to say that. Perhaps an emotional reaction on his part, but damn. I hope the cop later apologized to the father.

“These types of happenings are seared in your brain.....they never go away entirely. 
This vacationing couple, who now lost their son thru this horrible accident  will forever have this happening etched in their minds..it will fade but it will never go away.”

True. And it certainly doesn’t help that this was a national and international news story and that a lot of people on social media and on “other sites” have been saying terrible things about the parents. Not just they were “bad” parents or “negligent” but I even saw a couple of posters such as on you know where, postulating that the parents killed their child and put him in the water for the alligator to make it look like an accident, to collect the insurance money or some other such nonsense.