Last month, we blogged about a 2-year-old who was killed by an alligator at the man-made Seven Seas Lagoon located across the lake from the Magic Kingdom in Disneyworld.
The family of the toddler, Lane Graves, has opted to build a foundation in their son’s name rather than sue Disney.
“Melissa and I are broken. We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane,” Matt and Melissa Graves said in a statement Wednesday. “As each day passes, the pain gets worse, but we truly appreciate the outpouring of sympathy and warm sentiments we have received from around the world.”The Graves said they intended on keeping two-year-old Lane’s “spirit alive” through a foundation they created in his memory. “In addition to the foundation,” they said, “we will solely be focused on the future health of our family and we will not be pursuing a lawsuit against Disney.”
It is quite understandable that the parents do not want to go through the legal trauma of a lawsuit. However, Disney still must review its approach to wildlife in its resort areas.
It turns out the “Happiest Place on Earth” fired, then rehired, an intern that tweeted about a sign she saw related to alligators.
…[Shannon Sullivan’s] reaction was understandable. The sign, printed in red, green and blue ink, asked employees to deny that Disney knew of any alligators on its grounds because “we do not want our Guests [sic] to be afraid.”In green ink, it offered the “appropriate response” for an employee to give when asked if there were any alligators at Disney – “Not that we know of, but if we see one, we will call Pest Management to have it removed.”The sign read, in full:”If a Guest asks if we have gators in the water around Tom Sawyer’s Island (or any bodies of water), the correct and appropriate response is, ‘Not that we know of, but if we see one, we will call Pest Management to have it removed.’ Please do not say we have seen them before. We do not want our Guests to be afraid while walking around Frontierland [part of Disney’s Magic Kingdom]. As a reminder, this is a serious matter. Please do not make jokes with our guests about this.”
Hopefully Disney has learned that real wildlife differs dramatically from the cartoon animals that have made it famous, so that another family doesn’t have to live with the pain the Graves are know experiencing.
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