Why is Florida soo crazy?

Joe Gearin wrote: Dog ownership in FL isn't bad---- Rufus the wonder dog is 13 now, and he's never had a problem with critters. Never had a problem with Olaf my previous dog and he made it to 13 as well. The key is not to have a tiny little dog that an owl can carry off, or a gator looks at as an easy snack. Larger dogs are usually pretty safe, unless they encounter a truly large alligator--- which aren't nearly as common as the 4-6 foot guys scampering around. Like watching a child, you just don't let them go near the edge of the water-- especially at dusk or at night. I'm not keen on letting my dogs swim in fresh water down here--- the risk is just too high. Surprisingly too---- mosquitos aren't bad at all here in the Daytona area--- as long as you are near the beach. Head inland to the swamps.....and yes it gets bad. Still not as bad as the bird-sized mosquitos in the Northwoods of Wisconsin and Minnesota though! Agreed that folks just don't realize what the habitat is like down here---- but who's responsibility is it to teach them what they are getting themselves into? Research a place before you visit / move. It's not like Florida is keeping it's alligator population as a secret. Panthers too--- but I haven't seen one of those yet. And don't forget about the Bobcats! But those don't attack humans......I don't think.

Yeah, berkeley mn mosquitos. Though noseeums can rot in hell. Im never taking my shoes off near grass ever.

Florida (or "little Australia" as we like to call it) has any number of things that can quickly and crazily kill you. If the gators don't get you the shirtless drifter snorting crank off of a hunting knife is right in line behind them. And I may regret saying this someday but I'd rather take my chances with a bear than a gator. I have a feeling a mammal would give up the fight sooner than a reptile. Alligators have been roughly the same for about 200-million years, and it's hard to argue with success like that.

The good news for Florida, though, is the invasive population of pythons seems to be declining... because they're being pushed out by anacondas.

The boy's body has been found and is intact said officials.

In reply to fasted58:

I told swmbo that I smelt foul play when the boy's father said the gator swam off with him. They don't swim off with prey, they roll and kept rolling until the prey fights, struggles and drowns.

JG Pasterjak wrote: Florida (or "little Australia" as we like to call it) has any number of things that can quickly and crazily kill you. If the gators don't get you the shirtless drifter snorting crank off of a hunting knife is right in line behind them. And I may regret saying this someday but I'd rather take my chances with a bear than a gator. I have a feeling a mammal would give up the fight sooner than a reptile. Alligators have been roughly the same for about 200-million years, and it's hard to argue with success like that. The good news for Florida, though, is the invasive population of pythons seems to be declining... because they're being pushed out by anacondas.

Thats what makes it exciting!

JG Pasterjak wrote: And I may regret saying this someday but I'd rather take my chances with a bear than a gator. I have a feeling a mammal would give up the fight sooner than a reptile. Alligators have been roughly the same for about 200-million years, and it's hard to argue with success like that.

Archer said it best:

Gee, I don't know, Cyril. Maybe deep down I'm afraid of any apex predator that lived through the K-T extinction. Physically unchanged for a hundred million years, because it's the perfect killing machine. A half ton of cold-blooded fury, the bite force of 20,000 Newtons, and stomach acid so strong it can dissolve bones and hoofs.

I ask myself the same question as the title of this post in an otherwise quiet FL residential neighborhood as I hear fireworks with reports being launched on a Wednesday evening at 9:12 pm for no apparent reason.

captdownshift wrote: In reply to fasted58: I told swmbo that I smelt foul play when the boy's father said the gator swam off with him. They don't swim off with prey, they roll and kept rolling until the prey fights, struggles and drowns.

Yeah, when I heard that they found his body intact, I immediately feared that the whole alligator thing was a hoax. Why would an alligator take such an easy meal, then not eat?

In reply to DrBoost:

As a general rule, alligators prefer decomposed meat. They usually drown their prey and wedge it under a log or something for a few days before eating it.

I just recalled in the mid 60s, we visited my great uncle at his vacation house at Lake Placid. We went swimming all over that lake with no thought about gators. Maybe there weren't any back then.

In reply to spitfirebill:

Hadn't swam down from new yorks sewers yet.

PHeller wrote: I'm still thinking of just hopping the state and heading out to Puerto Rico.

Only if you pay off their debt.....

When he was commercial fishing, my dad found a body of a man that had fallen in the river 3 days prior. The sheriff surmised that a gator had wedged him under the crab pod for later eating. When the body came up, it was covered with blue crabs.

I don't eat blue crabs over that story.

johnnie wrote: I ask myself the same question as the title of this post in an otherwise quiet FL residential neighborhood as I hear fireworks with reports being launched on a Wednesday evening at 9:12 pm for no apparent reason.

Who needs a reason.

Wild animal attacks happen everywhere. For a while in Chicago, you could count on seeing a wild Metra commuter train beating up kids every summer.

Toyman01 wrote: In reply to DrBoost: As a general rule, alligators prefer decomposed meat. They usually drown their prey and wedge it under a log or something for a few days before eating it.

Ok, that makes perfect sense.

As a rust-belt person, we honestly didn't think much about the kids being eaten by gators at Disney. I'd like to think I have halfway decent SA, but gator attacks really weren't on my radar.

We have coyotes and an occasional black bear here, but outdoor safety in Ohio means: don't snort at deer, dress appropriately so you don't freeze in winter, and stay away from people.

The video of the site makes it look like this was a beach with steps down to the sand, chairs and umbrellas set up. Kind of odd, given that little kids are GOING to head for water if given a chance.

I don't get people hating on the parents. Anybody who claims to never have let their two year old more than two feet away from them and had their eyes on them 24/7 without so much as blinking is either delusional, a liar or a freak.

Also I can easily believe someone didn't know how fast and dangerous gators can be. These day's I'm a Naturalized Yankee who visits Florida once a year. Twenty plus years ago I was just a Brit who lived in Detroit heading down to Florida for a week to check it out. I went to the Everglades National park to do a tour. When I first got there there was a big MoFo Gator sunning itself on the side of the creek next to the parking lot, 12+ feet, still one of the biggest I've seen. This was before I went into the visitor center building and went for a tour. 'Cool' I thought and lay down pretty much nose to nose with the gator thinking they were slow on land and took some close up pics. It was only later on the tour I discovered how lucky I was not to have been laughed at in the papers as the moron who had head head ripped off.

Huckleberry wrote: Wait a minute... did this reptile make a tick-tock sound? Maybe it was an inside job?

I must be a bad person, but you owe my employer a new keyboard. Well done that man.

Seriously, I can't imagine what the family are going through. It was horrible to even hear about, but comedy is a great healer.

logdog wrote: Is anybody else a Carl Hiassen* fan? This is straight out of one of his books. *Most of my Florida environmental destruction history has come from Mr Hiassen.

Me too. Wasn't he a reporter for a local paper down there and all his stories were based off something that actually happened?

JG Pasterjak wrote: Florida (or "little Australia" as we like to call it) has any number of things that can quickly and crazily kill you. If the gators don't get you the shirtless drifter snorting crank off of a hunting knife is right in line behind them. And I may regret saying this someday but I'd rather take my chances with a bear than a gator. I have a feeling a mammal would give up the fight sooner than a reptile. Alligators have been roughly the same for about 200-million years, and it's hard to argue with success like that. The good news for Florida, though, is the invasive population of pythons seems to be declining... because they're being pushed out by anacondas.

So I got through the first two words, and, then, somehow the whole post read as if Steve Irwin was speaking it.

Which made it pretty amusing...

Re: Hiaasen- He still is a reporter for the Miami Herald, has been for 20+ years. His novels are loosely based on actual stuff that happens here, with a lot of environmental grief thrown in. Very colorful characters that sound outrageous....until you read the paper. I believe he still lives in Islamorada.

I'm never sure if this group likes parents who constantly hover over the kids and keep them on leashes, or the kind of parents who turn the kids loose for the day. Seems I remember a lot of threads with people talking about how their parents let them run all day and just called them back for dinner.

Yeah, I can't come down too hard on the parents here. I mean, it's berkeleying Disney, everything there is so controlled, sanitized, and homogenized, it's easy to see how you'd think a pond on Disney property would be safe for wading. Especially if you are not from the area.

The river I live on //winter time freezing weather not worried so much . Now that the heat is on alligator sightings a plenty . You can see something moving then wash big time into the reeds. I have a swimming hole and definetely I am aware of my dogs in the water . I also carry a snake gun on the boat as copper heads can be seen sunning now .

Man made beach, man made pond, lit, lifeguard in vicinity, all built by and on the property of a resort designed to attract people from all over the world for safe entertainment. People who have no clue about gators and especially don't expect them there. I don't blame the parents.
Disney is in a bad spot. If you have water in Florida you have gators. Gator attacks and especially deaths by gator attack are actually very very rare. IIRC this is only the third gator attack caused death in many years in the entire state. There is a LOT of water in Florida with gators in most of it so a total of 3 deaths is pretty spectacular. You can't fence the gators out, and the bad PR associated with killing any of them that show up on Disney property is not something they would want.

joey48442 wrote: Seems I remember a lot of threads with people talking about how their parents let them run all day and just called them back for dinner.

At home, yes. Someplace not home (ie public places) no. They were right there. There was a big difference of what was acceptable at home, and what is acceptable around others.