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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Well, It wasn't a crocodile that did him in.... but a String Ray barb to the heart...
A fitting end to Steve Irwin who made a "living" harrassing wild animals and spawned a slew of stupid copycat productions. I bet Darwin is gigglin' in his grave. |
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Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | Oh come on, he was a nice guy. Sorry to see him go. |
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January 2004
Posts: 1225
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | I wasn't a fan of this guy to begin with, but when he decided to feed crocodiles while holding his infant son, he went on my official ass____ list. That said, it sucks what happened to him. |
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Posts: 425
Location: SE Michigan | The guy was awesome. He really cared about animals and the environment, and worked tirelessly to improve things. He will be remembered for many years by many people. And talk about fearless, some of the stuff that guy did was incredible, but he was very good at it. I'm sure he was at least glad that he went while doing the thing he loved. I'll bet he would have preferred to get chomped by a crock or tagged by a cobra though.
Me and my kids will miss him. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | This is a rhetorical question: What was he thinking of when he tried to ride the back of a stingray?
The answer of course is that he wasn't thinking. Brain shut down happens to best of us, but, damn, that must've been a suprise ... Crickey! indeed! |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | From what I read he was not "playing" with the sting ray. He might have stepped on or disturbed in some other way. |
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November 2003
Posts: 11039
Location: Earth·SolarSystem·LocalInterstellarCloud·Local Bub | Sorry fellers, no sympathy from me on this one.
Raise awarness/ save the animals by proving dominion over them?? Would you beat your kids to teach them not to beat other kids? Karmic retrobution, pure and simple. |
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October 2005
Posts: 5332
Location: Bluffton, SC | Gotta say I'm falling in the middle. He may have done a lot in the way of awareness and conservation and that's great but some of these people just do plain ol' stupid things. They're wild animals, folks, and they call them wild for a reason. Jeff's right in that Darwin claims another. |
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Posts: 972
Location: PDX | I think his heart was in the right place, in that he really did know the habits of the animals. Also he really tried to raise awareness of the environment and animals right to range.
But he took lots of risks. One too many it seems. Oh well, just another death amoung thousands a day.
_____
gh1 |
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August 2004
Posts: 79
Location: Minnesota | There is an old saying that goes "You f*#ck with the bull, you get the horn!" Irwin did a great many things for animals with the money his show earned him, on the other hand, he spent a lot of time harrassing animals in the wild. While there was some educational value in his work I don't think it was enough to justify his tactics (just my personal opinion). You see these kind of accidents quite often though, risk takers who perish in really freak accidents. It's sad to see anyone go, he was very passionate about his work and very knowledgable. |
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Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | I think he was a great entertainer. I'll miss him. Dave |
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February 2003
Posts: 2178
Location: the BIG Metropolis of TR | Originally posted by DiamondT:
You see these kind of accidents quite often though, risk takers who perish in really freak accidents. ......Grizzly man..... |
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March 2002
Posts: 15682
Location: SoCal | He had a 3 year old son. I'm kinda pissed that a 44 year old man would take risks with his life that he didn't have to, and leave a small kid with no dad. Irresponsible. |
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Posts: 4389
Location: Capital District, NY, USA Minor Outlying Islands | Like shakespeare said: What fools these mortals be. |
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Posts: 4
| From what has been said so far by witnesses he wasn't riding a stingray, he was swimming a meter above it. Divers swim with stingrays often. They have a tank at seaworld filled with them that you can pet and feed (though with barbs removed) but still this shows how docile and calm the usually are. It is almost unheard of that someone would be popped by a stingray while swimming. While wading and stepping on them is another story (I've done that too and was lucky not to get nailed 'cause it was big enough to lift me off my feet). The point is that this was a freak accident the likes of which are hard to believe. The guy did a lot of dangerous stuff but riding in your car to the grocery store is more dangerous than what he was doing when he was killed. Note also that a lot of what he did wasn't nearly as dangerous as it looked. There were a lot of forced camera angles to make this look closer than they were and if you know what you're doing, dangerous animals aren't so dangerous (sorta like dynamite in the hands of a demolitions expert). And, believe it or not, I do have some idea of what I'm talking about having been involved in herpetelogical research and having handled venomous snakes hundreds of times while doing that research (rescued an aligator from a highway overpass while wearing my burger king uniform too but that's another story).
Steve Irwin was a bit of a cheeseball sometimes on TV but he did a lot to raise environmental awareness, especially with kids. His death is definitely a loss. |
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December 2004
Posts: 2150
Location: Orlando, FL | Steve Irwin was the real deal. He grew up on an animal park run by his parents so he grew up with crocs. They got a contract with the state to relocate nuisance crocs so they would not be destroyed. He was catching crocs with his Dad at the age of 9. He was a passionate guy who loved the animals and thought that if others could see them up close they would want to protect them. He took over the zoo for his parents and wanted to pass it to his kids one day. He educated and entertained people worldwide.
He died doing what he loved. |
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August 2005
Posts: 3736
Location: Sunshine State, Australia | By 'harassing wild animals' he was making the greater public aware of the plight of many endangered species.
ALL of the profits from his TV work and from Australia Zoo went into conservation.
Australia Zoo is only 45 minutes from here. I've been there many times, and although Steve Irwin irritated me, it was always a buzz to get to see him in person. He was a shining light.
I can't believe some of you are saying he deserved it!
My heart goes out to his wife Terry and his 2 little kids - and the extended family that worked alongside him at Australia Zoo.
Steve did a silly thing in many peoples eyes with the kid in the croc pen, but he was a fantastic dad and husband.
We are heartbroken about his loss here in Australia, especially here on the Sunshine Coast.
Wildlife conservation will suffer with his passing. |
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January 2005
Posts: 4903
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by moody, p.i.:
He had a 3 year old son. I'm kinda pissed that a 44 year old man would take risks with his life that he didn't have to, and leave a small kid with no dad. Irresponsible. Irresponsible? Hmmm ... Same could be said of fathers who drive while talking on the cellphone, or father who smoke cigarettes, or fathers who let their physical condition run to shit. Irresponsibility comes on many shades of grey. I'm not picking on Paul. Just saying that in my opinion more people in this world should be worried about their own personal codes of responsibility and not pointing fingers at others. Either way, Steve will be missed and Croc Hunter will go down as one of my more memorable TV watching experiences.
Dave |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Just a "Statistical" Note:
Total number people that have EVER died from a stingray (this compiled since they ever began recording such things) :
17. |
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August 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Pennsylvania | Some jobs are risky. I was an industrial electrician for many years and have worked on many live circuits up to 480 VAC, and some not-live circuits over 13,000 VAC, and many where at heights up to 100+ feet using lifts. I also use to collect reptiles, and was bitten by a western diamond back rattle snake when i was 19. I spent several days in ICU, and the venom spread to the center of my chest before the anti-venom started working and reversing it. For about an hour, they had the priest there, the paddles charged up, and i could see (and feel) my heart missing beats. The only thing i could do was try and stay as calm as possible, and hope it started reversing in time. When i first got to the hospitol, my hand allready looked like i was wearing a boxing glove it was so swollen. They where not equiped for this type of snake bite, because the snake was not from the east coast. They had to use helecopters and ambulances to find the anti-venom in time, and the pain was so intense that i passed out from it. The last thing i remember was 3 or 4 guys holding me in a chair while the doctor was cutting where the bite was. I broke my other arm loose, swung, and connected with someones jaw, then i woke up in a bed.
I actually made the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Bucks Count Courier Times.
I'm sure Steve knew the dangers involved with his proffession, yet he still devoted his life to it. This is a tragic loss, and my heart goes out to his family and friends.
I am sure he is in a good place, doing what he loves. |
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Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Bob...Your post begs the question....
After that experience did you still keep snakes as "pets"???? |
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November 2005
Posts: 1126
Location: Omaha, NE | Originally posted by gh1:
I think his heart was in the right place Urp. |
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August 2006
Posts: 55
Location: Pennsylvania | Originally posted by Slipkid:
Bob...Your post begs the question....
After that experience did you still keep snakes as "pets"???? Yes. The day i got back from the hospitol, i handled the same snake. I had to put him in a container to clean his cage out.
I got rid of everything when i got married and started having kids. Plus i was in the army at that time, which made it hard to keep that sort of hobby. |
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September 2003
Posts: 9301
Location: south east Michigan | Yikes Bob.
If that were me that diamond back would have ended up being part of cwk2's boots real fast. |
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June 2004
Posts: 580
Location: NW NJ | What Muzza and Tuppy said ... |
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WTF OT ....CRIKEY!!!!
