I'm just curious, why do you think the majority of people were upset about the gorilla killing and blamed the mom but the majority of people are not upset about the alligator killings and don't blame the parents?
I also don't think the two are remotely the same.
I was very vocal about gorilla incident and I did and still do blame the mother. Gorillas are endangered and he died for nothing he did wrong.
In the alligator incident, I don't think the parents are to blame, they didn't have enough information to be able to predict that their child was in any danger of attack. They didn't deliberately leave him unattended where they knew/thought a wild animal would be. Sure there was a no swimming sign...but they weren't swimming. If the managers of the resort knew or had good reason to suspect that alligators were in the water, then they should have had better signage outlining that there was a risk from wild animals. In that case I do think the resort is to blame.
However if they can prove they didn't know, or had no reason to suspect or had taken steps to ensure there were no alligators in the water...and one got in anyway, then I think it does qualify has a horrible accident.
And even though it is still horrible to kill wild animals for no good reason, they aren't an endangered species either.
In the first scenario, I think the zoo staff made the right call, as heart breaking as it was, BUT the gorilla did nothing wrong, it was the mother's fault he ended up dead.
In the second scenario, the alligator DID do something wrong, even though it was only following it's natural prey drive and other alligators in that same situation would also be likely to do the same thing. It's a family resort and to the best of their ability they can't allow wild animals to live in the lake and to kill visitors.
At the zoo you know there will be wild animals there and you expect them to be safely contained in their enclosures...which they were. If people are dumb enough to get in there or parents don't supervise their kids, then that's the fault of the people...not the fault of the animals.
At a Disney resort with a "beach" if you are a visitor and don't know about alligators in the area, then it's not natural to assume that your child might be snatched by a wild animal off that beach is there aren't signs or other warnings present. The lack of warnings (if they knew) is the fault of the people who run the resort, but not the fault of the parents.
The gorilla was innocent, but the alligator was guilty. Sure I would have preferred they "relocate" rather than kill those animals, but from what I'm hearing they aren't exactly rare...and if there is no place to take them too, then what else could they do with them except "put them down" hopefully quickly and humanely and without causing them undue suffering.