Forum Moderators: open
"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,"
[news.yahoo.com...]
I don't know whether to be shocked or to say it had to happen eventually. The guy just seemed invincible.
Now I hope Jeff Corwin and Brady Barr can be more careful after seeing what happens to Steve. Last show I watched Brady Barr almost had himself killed by getting stucked upside down in an underground snakepit.
You always knew he pushed the limits. I always figured half of it was tv drama and not as bad as they made out.
Sure sounds like it was a completely freak accident. Deaths from stingrays are all but unheard of. On the way in this morning, I heard one radio station saying they didn't think that anyone ever had been killed by a stingray. So, you could be pretty confident playing around with them - and if you get stung - ouch - back to work.
Mack.
I want to feel saddened but I know he'd hate that, he died doing what he loved and there is no greater honor. Happy hunting mate!
Sure, maybe he followed HIS dream ... but what about his wife and kids. I feel for them. Such a pity and what a way to go. That had to hurt!
After that stunt I just couldn't stomach him very much.
moment with the baby
I think he did that more to prove that crocs were not as dangerous as people think. He loved all reptiles and had been handeling them from a very young age himself. He was one of the leading people in Oz and the world to help change the way people treat "dangerous" animals. He got people to see that they were not evil, but rather just animals.
Maybe what he did with the baby was not presented in the best way (my husband has done a few stupid things with the kids before too), but he really just wanted to show that he would trust being in the arena with a crocodile even with his own child in his arms.
If some famous Holywood celeb died I would not be even a third as sad as I was to hear about Irwin.
He was one amazing individual. He will be missed.
Added in: I read the last death by Stingray in Australia was in 1945. Amazingly the barb of a Stingray can measure up to 20 cm long.
[edited by: Visit_Thailand at 1:37 am (utc) on Sep. 5, 2006]
So if the last death was in 1945 exactly what did he do to get this animal so rattled? Same as he did to most of the others on his shows. The only thing that surprises me is that it didnt happen sooner.
According to this: [news.bbc.co.uk...]
He was swimming/snorkelling above the Stingray when it stabbed him in the heart. To be honest it sounds very much like a freak accident. Wrong place, wrong time and definitely the wrong Stingray.
I will miss his obvious passion for animals and conservation. No other wildlife comes close in terms of entertainment value and his ability to make something interesting. His honest passion was written all over his face.
Yeah, and in one article I read it said it was only the third ever recorded stingray death in Australia. Apparently, it isn't the venom - the sticker is supposedly like a knife and very damaging on the way out. Essentially, he died from being stabbed in the heart - regardless of it being a stingray.
Sad day - my kids loved him. He did a guest show with the Wiggles (huge kids show) at his zoo with his daughter. It was my daughter's favorite Wiggles DVD.
Condolences to his family.
In the past decade, 17 deaths worldwide were the direct result of stingray barb injuries, according to Surf Life Saving Australia, a beach-safety resource organization.
[post-gazette.com...]
>>I used to watch him with my kids a lot until he pulled the stunt of bringing his infant son in the pen with him and a very large aligator.
Yes and the Croc had to go through a dead chicken and Steve before it got to the child. Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, or Steve Irwin as my child's babysitter? Easy.
>>what did he do to get this animal so rattled?
Wildlife documentary maker Ben Cropp, citing a colleague who saw footage of the attack, told Time.com that Irwin had accidentally boxed the stingray in. "It stopped and twisted and threw up its tail with the spike, and it caught him in the chest," said Cropp. "It's a defensive thing. It's like being stabbed with a dirty dagger."
[edition.cnn.com...]
Tragic irony:
Irwin was in the area to film pieces for a show called "The Ocean's Deadliest" with Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques, according to Stainton.But weather had prevented the crew from doing work for that program, Stainton said, so Irwin decided to do some softer features for a new children's TV show he was doing with his daughter, Bindi.
I guess one way of looking at this is, he died doing something he loved. It's even more of a tragedy when someone is walking about minding their own business and they get his by a bus. This was clearly someone who was living his dream, although that does very little to help his loved ones.
Mack.
He did enormous good to spread the word of conservation, of educating people of all ages about crocs and reptiles / other species.
He built a small reptile farm into Australia Zoo.
He brought joy and educational entertainment into millions of homes around the world.
Sure we could get into politics, discuss medicines, patents, the millions that die each year, but Steve made a difference to millions of lives around the world.
He will be missed by me, by them and by many more who have yet to see all that he produced.
Worry not, disease is not going anywhwere neither is death, war or famine but it does not hurt to celebrate the life of someone who truly shone.
[edited by: Visit_Thailand at 10:38 am (utc) on Sep. 5, 2006]
[edited by: lawman at 5:04 pm (utc) on Sep. 5, 2006]
So it's rare, but not unheard of
CAUGHT ON TAPE: Irwin's final moments captured on videotape that shows him pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest, officials said.
[entertainment.tv.yahoo.com...]
I certainly hope no network would have the bad taste to air this tragedy.
But, the little baby is almost 3 years old now and has never been accidental croc food as people expected. I guess, he wasn’t such a bad father.
He tried to educate the masses, but, I feel his greatest lesson was his last......"don't mess with nature"!
We live in a place surrounded by wildlife, some of it dangerous.....alligators, leopards, snakes, bears, and even deer can be nasty if provoked.
The golden rule is "don't mess with them, and they won't mess with you". Steve chose to cloudy the line and paid the price. A great pity.....but, what better way is there to teach people to respect wildlife than to die showing how not to do it!
