Sad news.. The crocodile hunter has been killed by a sting ray. My whole family loves his show and he will be missed.
This is sad news.
I used to watch his show on Animal Planet all the time.
Strangely, down in his home country of Australia, he wasn't nearly as popular as he was here in the U.S.
Down there, they all thought he was a big joke.
I never thought that though.
I always thought of him as a good guy who really loved to be around animals and it showed in his enthusiasm.
And I always thought to myself that if this guy dies at an early age, it would be from an animal.
I never thought it would be a stingray.
What a senseless and empty death.
Well, at least he died doing what he loved.
I'll definitely miss him.
RIP He was the real deal as far as loving animals went. He put a lot of the money he made back into his animal preserve. I hope it can get along without him.
Also remember his family. He left a widow, an eight-year-old daughter, and a three-year-old son.
ASHTHECAT Wrote:
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>
> What a senseless and empty death.
> Well, at least he died doing what he loved.
>
Sad, yes, but not senseless and empty. Imo, dying doing what you love means you are having a FULL life.
RIP, Steve. Good on ya for the work you've done.
Crikey!
ulthar Wrote:
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> Sad, yes, but not senseless and empty. Imo, dying
> doing what you love means you are having a FULL
> life.
Yeah...I suppose you're right.
I guess I should've rephrased that.
I remember when he first came on the air thinking how dangerous that stuff was even for an animal handler. He kinda lost popularity with the baby stunt. Not sure what he was thinking there, but we all make our mistakes. He was a good guy and great TV personality. Loved the show while it was on.
Damn.
I wasn't a big fan of him but that doesn't mean I disliked him. It seems like he was always there on t.v. while I grew up though. A familiar face.
I didn't mind him, but didn't watch him either. If I racall correctly, his wife is from Eugene Oregon. A friend of mine said she worked with her.
_Ed
This might mean a little to his family, Steve's last name is Irwin. I only call attention to this because my last name is Erwin. We're cousins somewhere back in our ancestry.
I hate it for his wife and children, to lose a parent at an early age is really rough. They get cheated out of so much.
I lost interest in him once the novelty wore off, he was too "on" for me, I guess I like my nature programs to be a little more serious minded and I'll say it, stuffy.
Can't say I'm surprised his death involved an animal, hadn't seen anything of his in a while and didn't know he was branching out beyond his usual critters. The article I read about his death had a comment from someone who knew him professionally who said he was out of his element in the water and figured water could be his downfall if an animal ever got him.
Yaddo 42 Wrote:
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> Can't say I'm surprised his death involved an
> animal, hadn't seen anything of his in a while and
> didn't know he was branching out beyond his usual
> critters. The article I read about his death had a
> comment from someone who knew him professionally
> who said he was out of his element in the water
> and figured water could be his downfall if an
> animal ever got him.
Ironic to say the least... I hear his death was caught on film- this leads me to an ethics question: If it was shown somewhere, would you watch it?
Just Plain Horse Wrote:
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Ironic to say the least... I hear his death was
> caught on film- this leads me to an ethics
> question: If it was shown somewhere, would you
> watch it?
I already tried looking for it online but couldn't find anything.
Yes, I'd definitely watch it.
Yeah...they said that they have the entire thing on video from him getting stung and pulling the barb from his chest, and then he was gone.
I'm sure it'll be available soon, and no, I don't think I'd watch it. I like my death scenes cinematic, not real.
Amanda Wrote:
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> Yeah...they said that they have the entire thing
> on video from him getting stung and pulling the
> barb from his chest, and then he was gone.
>
> I'm sure it'll be available soon, and no, I don't
> think I'd watch it. I like my death scenes
> cinematic, not real.
I personally think it's a tad bit ghoulish to seek out such images of "real" death, especially of those whom you like, just to satisfy your curiousity. Death is... niether good or bad, it just is... I refuse to trivialize it because the media is more than happy to use it for their own ends.
He died doing something he loved. It's likely small comfort to his family but I'm glad he went quickly.
Just Plain Horse Wrote:
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>
> I personally think it's a tad bit ghoulish to seek
> out such images of "real" death, especially of
> those whom you like, just to satisfy your
> curiousity. Death is... niether good or bad, it
> just is... I refuse to trivialize it because the
> media is more than happy to use it for their own
> ends.
I agree. Death is not entertainment.
In movies it is different because you know it is not real. But when really happens, a real person felt pain, a real spouse is grieving and real children will never know their parent, etc.
In this case, I have no interest in watching that video. His last moments are private - or they should be.
ulthar Wrote:
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>
> I agree. Death is not entertainment.
>
> In movies it is different because you know it is
> not real. But when really happens, a real person
> felt pain, a real spouse is grieving and real
> children will never know their parent, etc.
>
> In this case, I have no interest in watching that
> video. His last moments are private - or they
> should be.
I think the important difference in a movie is, a movie is a story- sometimes a death of a character occurs as the story develops... how the other characters deal with that loss helps the storyteller make a point.
Sometimes to keep one's humanity, one must feel. Making death an abstraction for entertainment cheapens the lives of both the living and the dead.
I've seen real deaths on TV, like the Vietnam War street execution and people falling and jumping to their deaths during the September 11th attacks, and in videos, like the "Faces of Death" films (even though some were faked) during the morbid fascination phase I had in high school and the Kevin Sykes filmed shooting of a wounded Iraqi insurgent who may have been reaching for a weapon (shown briefly uncut in the documentary "Why We Fight") and I'm aware of some of the more notorious ones making the rounds online.
But I don't think I would watch the Irwin death if I had the chance, besides the base morbidity of watching it, I don't see what I have to gain by watching his death. I can only feel worse afterwards, and Irwin isn't someone I dislike enough to derive some gruesome form of schadenfreude (sp?) from seeing him die. Also if footage of my father's death existed I'd always be disgusted and angry that his death was serving as some grotesque entertainment for anyone, especially complete strangers.
Yaddo 42 Wrote:
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> But I don't think I would watch the Irwin death if
> I had the chance, besides the base morbidity of
> watching it, I don't see what I have to gain by
> watching his death. I can only feel worse
> afterwards, and Irwin isn't someone I dislike
> enough to derive some gruesome form of
> schadenfreude (sp?) from seeing him die. Also if
> footage of my father's death existed I'd always be
> disgusted and angry that his death was serving as
> some grotesque entertainment for anyone,
> especially complete strangers.
Well said. I always thought Irwin was a little loopy for tackling animals that could be classified as "dangerous", but I kind of liked his general attitude, so while I think it was inevitable that somebody who does what he did- which could basically be boiled down to invading the "personal space" of creatures capable of killing a human a dozen times over- I would never have any desire to watch him die, or even suffer from wounds received in these encounters. Still, one has to die somehow, and at some time... so who's to say what the right time or right way is?
It's a sad moment. Whilst many Aussies probably joked that they wanted him to be eaten by a croc, everyone was proud to call this nutcase one of us.
It's amazing that his death is being compared to that as Princess Di's. Even I think that's pretty nutty...
Anyway, it seems like Australian personalities are dropping like flies at the moment. Legendary racer Peter Brock had a fatal car crash this week as well.
What is most interesting about the Steve Irwin case for me is the amount of media attention it's getting, but not the fact that he died, which is shocking in itself, but the amount the Australian media seems to focus on how much foriegn media has been reacting to his death. It's as if they're surprised that the rest of the world even knows who he was, despite the fact he made it big in the states before here.
As another bad point, the jokes were already spreading not long after Steve and Brock's deaths. I won't go into detail, since some were pretty lame and just plain wrong. Shockers really...
But anyways they both will be missed. I'm just waiting to see who drops next since someone convinced me the other night that these things usually happen in threes...
Colin Thiele (author of Storm Boy etc) was the other one, Dean..... we just need to think that and then the rest of our celebrities should be safe.
Actually watching Rock Star : Supernova the other night, and when Toby (the Aussie) commented about the death of a prominent Australian, I was sort of hoping that he would mention Mr Thiele, just to confuse the yanks ;-)
Gotta say, though, that the Peter Brock death upset me a lot more than Steve Irwins.... but being a massive Holden & Motorsport fan, I guess that would make sense.
So, Dean - are any of those jokes worth sharing? Or should we start a new thread for that?
One comment which was going around work the other day was that both these guys died doing what they loved... and that based on that theory we should all be perfectly safe at work!
The jokes are pretty terrible actually, like the rumour that 'Sting' is going to perform at Irwin's funeral [one of the really lame ones]
I won't bother with the rest mainly because of how stupid they mostly are.
I didn't realise about Thiele. Shows how some deaths are overshadowed by others.
Figured you'd be pretty sad Rombles since I know you're a Holden nut. I gotta say Brock's death had me in more sympathy than Irwin's. You don't wish it on either, but at least with Irwin, it was almost expected that something bad was going to happen and you kind of mentally prepared as such.
Ah well...
Oh my god I forgot his wife is my Eugene Oregon, that's where I live!
In fact I believe either she or Steve was once attended by my best friend's mom. He told me that years ago and I was like "Whoa!"
I need to ask him about that.