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My condolences to his family (his wife is in tasmania at the time)

Steve Irwin dead | The Courier-Mail

Yep, it's going to be a bit of a loss to tourism in qld & aust. We'll certainly miss him.

Stingray injuries mostly occur when a person steps on the ray, either when climbing out of a boat in shallow sandy water or when running into such water. The stingray whips its poison barbed tail around, lacerating the foot or lower leg, sometimes leaving a portion of the barb behind. The mechanical injury can be severe, with fatal cases due to direct heart or bowel puncture or transection of major limb vessels. Nerve or tendon damage can occur. The venom causes intense local pain, which is heat susceptible, hence the value of hot water immersion as first aid. Always check the wound for foreign bodies, allow to close by secondary intention and consider prophylactic antibiotics. The severe local pain may require major analgesia or regional nerve block. There is no antivenom.

Not good for a direct hit above the heart

I feel half remorse and pity, and half "why was he messing around like that in the first place?"

My heartfelt condolences. May God be with him.

I guess it was going to happen sooner or later considering the risks he took, but its still awful that he died. I hope his wife and family are coping ok.

Aah, that is too bad. Yes, I agree that he could expect something like that when doing such dangerous stuff, but I must also say that if a guy like him loves animals this much and likes to go so close to the edge for the quality of his show, then heck, why not let him live like that? That thing that he did with his young son was just stupid, but how he lived his own life was his own choice, and a very interesting choice as well. It's sad that someone who is so passionate about animals in the end walks into that wall of humans being simply not fit to live this close with animals. He died a very tragic death and may he rest in peace.

Wow,
You can knock me over with a feather. I am not totally surprised either, but he always seemed to way about him of being able to avoid that. My condolences as will and that God bless his family in this terrible time.

OMG I can't believe it! I want to visit his zoo one day. Too bad I won't be able to meet him. He is one of my idols. I am very sorry for his loss. He will be sorely missed. The man was a true inspiration to his practice and culture. R.I.P. Steve Irwin.

"Fear helps me from making mistakes, but I make lot of mistakes." -Steve Irwin

rest in peace, steve. god bless you and your family.

I was sitting in my friend's room at her place watching SpaceBalls when her dad called to tell us (my friend herself had fallen asleep during the movie a few times; we had been out late, and she and our other friend Lucy were napping the day away, whereas I generally cannot sleep during the day unless I'm sick or *really* tired). I just recall the expression on Eve's face when her dad said it. Her response after that was basically, "That's natural selection at work."

Was it cruel of her to say it? I'm sure some people will say so. But I agreed 100%; I was longing to see the episode of Croc Hunter (and it would be the only one I ever would see, too) where he got eaten. We talked about this news item quite a bit yesterday, and although Eve and I trash-talked him consistently, we rose our glasses to him all the same. I despised that show of his, since he was kind of famous for saying he could control wild animals and the very definition of the term is dependant on "wild." He did do a good service by raising animal awareness and whatall, but at the same time he was kind of asking for it. But at least he went out doing something he loved; how many of us will ever have that chance?

I have to say, I am shocked it didn't happen sooner to be honest. If I were a wild animal, and some creatures I had no experience with were hounding me with odd contraptions I had never seen before, I would be hostile towards them. It was simply a matter of time before he went out of his way to get a story about some animal which happened to resent his intrusion on their life and decided to try taking just that away from him, and actually succeeded. Most animals will try to flee if humans come near them. This show prevented them from fleeing however, being that they wanted to get right up on top of the creatures. That is a good way to present yourself as a threat and be dealt with in a violent manner to scare you away or maim you so the creature can get away, if not to simply kill you and end the threat.

Based upon the film footage, officials have determined the cause for the attack was due to the camera man and not Steve swimming in front of the Stingray causing it to feel entrapped and therefore become defensive. Basically Steve died not because of something he did but because of someone else.

The really tragic part of this story is that this was supposed to be his last documentary and he was doing it for his daughter.

I was waiting until my kids were a bit older so that we could visit his zoo and meet him in person.

Does it matter? They went out of their way to invade the sting ray's life and put it on film in the first place. There was no way the sting ray could have given consent to be bothered, no way to say "leave me alone" besides trying to get away, or acting in an aggressive matter. I have seen an older show of his, where he went right up to a crocodile and proceeded to pester it in order to show people how it bites, and to understand it. Granted, he was promoting human understanding of animals. Yet, was there ever anything as to how the animals felt during this?

The way I view this man is similar to a pimp that does not beat his whores. He had a zoo. A zoo is what? A place where people pay to see animals taken out of their natural habitat and forced to live in a place where they are fully dependant on humans. That, is exploitation and slavery, no matter how well you treat them, they are not free. Going into an animals home environment to spread awareness of how it is in the wild is an invasion of the animals privacy and rights. Nothing better than those reporters who sneak up to the windows of models and stars to catch nude pictures of them and sell them. Why then celebrate the man and his lifes work?

Ironic that he dies from an attack from a passive/defensive beast. Oh well. He was a good entertainer, RIP.

Magrus wrote:A zoo is what? A place where people pay to see animals taken out of their natural habitat and forced to live in a place where they are fully dependant on humans.

Life of Pi.





Anyways, RIP Steve Irwin. You were a good entertainer, regardless of whether you encroached upon animals or not.

Oh, that's very sad but not at all surprising.

[quote="Chimaera]
But at least he went out doing something he loved; how many of us will ever have that chance?[/quote]

Yes"]really[/i] dangerous.

With his popular style, I think he did a lot to raise awareness of wildlife conservation. I can't say much about his TV-shows because I only saw it one or two times, but I do think he made a difference in the positive direction and that's what counts for me.