Neither reptile was full-grown — one was a young juvenile and the other was about four or five feet long, whereas an adult male American alligator can stretch to about 11 feet. Perhaps it was the gators’ smallish size. Reedy Creek is the Disney-controlled taxing district that provides government services to the theme parks and surrounding areas. According to the emails, firefighters were feeding at least one of two alligators hanging around Fire Station 3, located off Floridian Way on Maple Road less than a half mile from Seven Seas Lagoon and less than a mile from Grand Floridian. There, two months after the firefighters were admonished for feeding the animals, a gator — thought to be between four and seven feet long — fatally attacked a boy wading in the lagoon. [Disney’s Magic Kingdom has made its gator and crocodile characters disappear] 
 
 Claude Rogers, a communications captain, had warned that staff needed to stop giving food to the animals, in an email obtained by the Orlando Sentinel. “It was brought to our attention firefighters are feeding the alligators (this is illegal),” Rogers wrote on April 20. "Several people have expressed concern of becoming alligator food because the alligator is seen out of the pond near the building, by the dumpster, and near the cars," he wrote. As you can imagine this is making the communicators nervous because they are fearful of walking to their car and their leg becoming dinner. Animal Control has been notified and I have spoken to B/C Brown requesting they tell the firefighters to stop feeding the alligator. In the interim could you ask your crews to stop feeding the gator.” 
 
 Here are tips for dealing with "nuisance alligators" in this PSA from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) 
 
 This was on the heels of another email from Dan Lewis, a Fire Station 3 dispatcher, who complained that the animals were scampering into the parking lot. "They are coming out in the parking lot much more than others in the past and WE are the ones who have to walk in that parking lot every day and in the dark. “They are not docile gators, they are mean and they are out looking for food because people are feeding them. It's getting uncomfortable" 
 
 Classe said he doubts the larger gator would have been involved in the attack on Lane Graves. The emails were obtained through a public-records request made after an alligator snatched 2-year-old Lane Graves from the shore of the Seven Seas Lagoon on June 14 and drowned him while he was on vacation with family from Nebraska. [‘We are devastated,’ family says of toddler killed in alligator attack at Disney resort] 
 
 It is not apparent if the firefighter feedings in the station pond, which is an isolated body of water, are connected to the June attack. Feeding alligators is illegal because it causes the animals to lose their natural fear of humans. In an interview with the Sentinel, John Classe, the district administrator for Reedy Creek, said that he did not know if the larger gator behind the fire station had been removed. One employee at the resort said at the time there was a problem with guests feeding the animals. "The gator would have to travel across a couple roadways … to get over to the Seven Seas water body system, so it's not likely" it got over there, Classe said. A Disney representative said Wednesday she did not know if the larger alligator had been relocated, according to the Associated Press.
– Firefighters at Disney World were warned to stop feeding alligators two months before a gator killed 2-year-old Lane Graves, according to employee emails. Emails from employees of Reedy Creek Emergency Services—which operates inside the park—show firefighters had been feeding at least one of two gators apparently living in a pond near their fire station, less than a mile from where Lane was killed, reports the Orlando Sentinel. One alligator was believed to be four or five feet long, and the other was a juvenile. In one email to the fire station's commanders, a communications rep said an alligator had been spotted near the station where communications staff parked their cars, and some "expressed concern of becoming alligator food. ... (C)ould you ask your crews to stop feeding the gator." A Reedy Creek dispatcher later complained about two gators in the parking lot. "They are not docile gators, they are mean and they are out looking for food because people are feeding them," he wrote. "It's getting uncomfortable." A Reedy Creek district administrator says firefighters received "just a talking to"—though feeding gators is illegal in Florida. It's not clear whether these gators have any connection to Lane's death. The administrator is skeptical because they would have had "to travel across a couple roadways" to get to the Seven Seas Lagoon near the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, where the June 14 incident took place. Still, notes the Washington Post, trying to avoid such attacks is "one reason it is illegal to feed alligators in Florida." The resort area has since added signs warning people about feeding them, reports People. (The June attack was the result of a "perfect storm" of circumstances.)