After alligator attack, resort reviews policies

It's an unwritten rule for Florida residents: Keep your kids away from ponds and lakes because alligators are everywhere.

But after a gator killed a 2-year-old Nebraska boy at a Walt Disney World Resort, attention soon turned to tourists. In a state with an estimated 1 million alligators, how should theme parks and other attractions warn visitors, and did Disney do enough?

Disney beaches remained closed on Thursday after the death of Lane Graves, and the company said it has decided to add alligator warning signs, which it previously did not have around park waters.

The resort said in a statement that it was also "conducting a swift and thorough review of all of our processes and protocols".

Disney's wildlife management system has ensured "that their guests are not unduly exposed to the wildlife in this area", Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said during the search for the child.

Yet Kadie Whalen, who lives in Pennsylvania, saw no evidence of that system when she visited Disney World with her family four years ago.

Whalen said her three young children and niece were playing on a resort beach at the water's edge with buckets and shovels provided by Disney workers when the beady eyes of a 2.1-meter gator appeared in a lake just a few meters away. She screamed and everyone scattered.

"We knew that Disney was aware that this was a problem, and yet they encourage people to be there," Whalen said on Thursday in a telephone interview.

16,000 complaints

The dead child's parents, Matt and Melissa Graves, who live in a suburban area of Omaha, have not spoken publicly, so it's unclear whether they knew anything about the gator threat in Florida.

State wildlife officials say they receive nearly 16,000 alligator-related complaints a year. Last year, they removed more than 7,500 gators deemed to be a nuisance.

Depending on the size of an alligator, the state may send out a trapper, as happened after the gator grabbed the boy at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, located across Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom, one of the world's most popular tourist destinations.