The heart of the matter for you is how much money they have.
How anyone could get that out of anything I've said is beyond me. No amount of money will EVER heal this horrific trauma for this poor family. The death of a child has a high probability of ending in divorce, too, because it it's so stressful. I hope they don't suffer that loss, as well.
Did anyone watch that video posted about the crocodile? If not, do check it out. It's incredible.
I didn't see a video about a crocodile. I saw some about alligators, including a few I posted.
You mentioned the billions that Disney has earlier in the thread, and are the only one to bring up the concept that they seem to have "enough money" to put up signs.
Amoebas in the water is still a very different scenario because there's no way to control or monitor how amoebas behave or where they will be, much less lightning.
Not at all. You can test the water regularly, which people do in places where people are expected to be swimming. You can bet your butt they are testing for organisms in the pool. The story I posted about the amoeba death was at a different part of Disney, because it turns out their filters don't filter out every single organism in the water. This happened about as long ago as the previous alligator-related attack at the park, which was cited as a reason to warn everyone about alligators. Sometimes you do need to look at context.
Lightning is not the same in every state. Most of the deaths by lightning are sadly preventable, but people don't understand that afternoon storms roll in very quickly, and that on a rare, extra-humid day, you can have horrific thunderstorms first thing in the morning. That makes it a terrible time to golf, for instance, or be at the beach, or up in metal bleachers. Florida has far more lightning than other places, just like North Carolina (on susano's map early in the thread) has fewer gators, though it still has them.
I don't know what a metal teller stamp is and I don't care. Lightning is everywhere in the world and it's magnitudes less predictable than a bunch of alligators in a pond, so that doesn't apply here.
Again, not even remotely true. Texas and Florida have much higher incidence of lightning strikes. Hell, as I'm getting ready for work this morning, there's a pseudo-stationary storm over one city in Florida producing 2k+ lightning strikes. It's a natural hazard that seems normal to those of us living near it. Just like the alligators, snakes, and other things. If you don't see a parallel there, you don't need to mock it.
You can make anything sound ridiculous if you just imagine up ridiculous scenarios that, by the way, have nothing to do with what I'm proposing, which is a simple, common, everyday sign or some kind of warning through other media. You don't have to construct a billboard or anything like that, ok?
As for the black bears, you can disclose it to your visitors for however long you like to ensure their safety. They roam around a lot, so it's not likely that they would always be found on your property in a very specific location like, say, a pond. And it's not like you constructed some kind of attraction outside where you knew there were black bears around. If you did that, then heck yes, you should disclose that to your visitors.
But the scenario was a killer black bear only three years ago. The scenario that has you riled up is a previous non-deadly alligator attack on the property 30 years ago, and that people should have been warned based on that. Presence's question here is more than valid. It's also another natural hazard that people in the area know of, but that someone not familiar with the area might not be.
And another ridiculous argument you make is that you think people will say they had no idea there were alligators in Florida. Almost everyone knows there are alligators in Florida, but they aren't aware of the distribution of the gator population or if they might expect to find them in a pond at a Disney resort. Most people would assume not because, once again, common $#@!ing sense, but I wouldn't expect you to know anything about that.
It's common sense to assume Disney's ponds are immune to wildlife? Or your buddy's? I would actually be more suspicious of someone assuring me there was nothing dangerous in their lake/pond.
At least you pointed out that you shouldn't be liable.
You Disney apologists need to make up your mind. Either the gator danger is so freaking real that everybody should just expect it and and so Disney isn't safe (the "It's the parents fault for not realizing there could be gators even without a sign), or the fact that Disney is normally a safe place means that people should expect to be safe wherever they are on the park unless they are warned otherwise. Your argument would be like a kid gets thrown to his death off a ride at Disney and you're like "Well it was only one kid."
It's not "Disney apologists." I have already pointed out that Disney is going to be liable because knowing the gators were hand-fed makes them no longer "natural." It makes them more likely to approach/attack people. THAT is a problem. Without that fact, no, I don't think it would be Disney's fault --- which does not mean I think it's the parents' "fault."
I don't expect any two year olds will be getting drunk and climbing your proposed fence. If I had a toddler and there was not a gator sign I might have let him wade on the beach in one foot of water even if the sign said "No swimming." The sign didn't say "No wading" so I might not have thought we were in any danger. And snakes typically try to get away from you. If there were snakes known to hunt people in Florida then that would probably be a good idea for a sign as well. Really this is a silly argument. If there was no need for a gator sign then there was no need for a "no swimming sign." Hell, Disney should just say "Come to this park at your own risk. We really hope you don't die." They gave the impression that they were a family safe theme park. If what people should know is "This is the equivalent of the Australian outback and your kids might look like snack food to hungry gators" then fine. Disney should say that in its advertising or relocate its theme parks to places like Nebraska.
No, but parents put their kids on ledges and edges quite often. Adults will definitely sit atop a wall, even when it's really obviously a bad idea. Snakes typically try to get away from you, unless they are cornered or startled enough to strike you. Florida has some very nasty varieties, many of which could be found in the sort of shore environment the kid was playing in. Gators, btw, will also try to get away UNLESS THEY ARE HAND-FED. Most of the comments from the pitchfork crowd seems to come from the idea that every alligator is just prowling around waiting to kill you. Of all the videos and photos posted, how many ended with the alligator harming someone? Millions of these things around, and yet we're not all waddling around on stumps because they're hunting us down.
We're both from WV, and I don't know about your experiences, but it has always been very common for people to warn visitors on their property about possible wildlife that might be lurking around, especially if it's something unusual, like bears or panthers. (No, it's true, there were two panthers known to dwell in the woods around our house when we were young.) Some things may be very rare, but it usually pops into a friend's mind to warn them about the things they should be most concerned about that are common in that area but might not be common in other areas, especially if they might be lethal. It doesn't require the threat of a lawsuit for a friend to warn people, so is it too much to ask for Disney to act like any friend would and give its visitors a simple warning?
I'm not "from" WV, though it was lovely there. If I had to go through the list of possible wildlife near here, you'd never get in the door. Caution: turkeys, possums, raccoons, panthers, bears, foxes, owls, hawks, geese, alligators, snakes, lizards, frogs, deer, mosquitoes, alligator snapping turtles, ticks, lovebugs, armadillos, rabbits, dogs, cats, feral hogs, centipedes, spiders, palmetto bugs, squirrels... also please avoid quicksand, swamp gas, any pine tree that looks like it's leaning, the big hole caused by a lightning strike a week ago, poison ivy, poison oak, the heat (which people DON'T understand, and die of quite regularly, before you come back with "it can get hot ANYWHERE), the humidity, afternoon rainstorms, morning storms, any pond or lake (the bottoms tend to be covered with clinging plants people underestimate, at which point they get snagged and die), the springs (people die in the cave systems there because they underestimate the danger and overestimate their capabilities), any loose soil, sinkholes...
Some of those are more deadly than others. Nearly all of them are possible anywhere in Florida, including Disney, which despite having people out and about patrolling is not under a biodome.
No one warned me about the deer in WV being rather large and aggressive. I figured it out when I saw one bounding down a hill by jumping on and off cars parked along the side of the road. I'm glad I didn't park there, but I didn't rage at someone for not putting up a sign. Speaking of which, no one has addressed my hope that they put some thought into the signage. The "deer crossing" sign just looks like a happy deer jumping around. It doesn't exactly convey the fact that they jump into the road and cause deadly accidents.
Yep, that's long, but since people love to mock once someone leaves, it sort of had to be. Normal gators are not out to kill you and aren't much of a hazard. Signs are a polite thing to do, but not some requirement or else you're a heartless corporation that obviously wants everyone to die because they put a beach next to a lake that is for fireworks and boat shows. Everyplace you visit is going to have natural hazards that your host or hotel are not required to go through "just in case." All of this is moot because the alligators, by virtue of being hand-fed and by virtue of the fact this was communicated to Disney, are no longer natural hazards.
I think that was in Clearwater.
