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Steve Irwin Dies at age 44, A sad day in the herping world..

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wow

Whew, look what I started, althought there have been some very thoughtful replies to this post, Thanx for the effort and as MOST of you have said "what a Loss", Marshall P..
 
echo

I can only echo the many nice things some have said here. He truly did so much for the animals and people too. He certainly accomplished something in his life. If anything, that should push us to do more for the animals we love so much. Certainly a goading for me to continue my little school presentations every year. Who knows what I'm setting off in a child's mind? Certainly I'm sowing seeds of conservation in their minds when they realize that snakes aren't so bad, and hope they walk away remembering that HUGE pinesnake they petted back in grade school or at the kids church program.

Yes he caused some animals a bit of exctement out of their day, but good grief people! I go through STRESS every day at work! Do you see a public outcry about that?

And you can't tell me you've never caused a hatchling snake to have stress. It can't be done! Nor have you never stressed an animal driving your car down the road. Much less the ones you've killed and don't see. We've all done it.

My daughter, now almost two, has the Wiggles DVD that has him in it. So she knows his voice well. We had Animal Planet on TV just the other day. And it wasn't his show that was on. So little Becca was bored with that and off playing in a diff room with her toys. And during a commercials break they played the segment where Steve is talking about what he wanted to be remembered for. And Rebecca heard his voice and came RUNNING into the room to watch. She knows his voice well. My wife and I looked at each other and smiled. I held back a few tears on that one!

His enthusiasm was what caught people's attention, young and old alike. Sure I thought he was a bit crazy! But I loved the man. He also shared so much about his personal life that you felt you knew about him. So thus we grieve all the more.

He did more for animals and educating people than all of his nasty mouthed critics combined!!!

Well done Steve. Well done.
 
Vinman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

roar roar roar...... ok theres the anger out now i dont think that you should insult stevey, the guy whose saved loads of reptiles. He only stressed the reptiles out a little bit because he had to or his shows would be boring to many people who are not so interested in just watching a snake slither around his hand. :flames: so thats my statement please respect stevey in the future
 
Wow!

Well Done Russel, I couldn't have put his work any better, when I read your reply I realized your on the same page that I am, thanx again, Marshall P..
 
Vinman mention Mark O'Shea as an example how to treat herps well Vinman how taking O'Shea as an example on how to treat dead herpetologists

The following is Direct quote from the MArk O'Shea Website



Mark O'Shea would like to express his sincere condolences to Terri Irwin, Bindi and Bob, the staff of the Australia Zoo and all Steve's family and close personal friends at this most tragic of times.
Steve may has passed away but his legacy will live on forever in the minds and hearts of his millions of fans and followers worldwide.
"Crocs Rule"

Mark O'Shea
 
Famous folk and chicken necks

I also wanted to add I ussually don't give a rats you know what about any celebrity dead or alive.

BUt there are two Celebrity deaths that actually brough a tear to my eyes
One was Steve Irwin
and the Other was Mr. Dressup those who grew up in the 70's + 80 in Canada will know who I mean.

and also Vinman Crickets are cheaper than meat wind dont you just feed your snakes on ground up crickets.

If you have worries about feeding your large collection then you cant afford to be a large scale herper get real


Asvard
 
I think I am going to be in the minority on this one. I enjoyed watching Steve’s shows as much as anybody, but I was watching one not long ago and I told my girlfriend that the guy is crazy he wasn’t going to live long and I wouldn’t be surprised if his death was on the news tomorrow.

If you play with fire you are going to get burned. If you play with White Tigers you are going to get eaten, and if you play with poisonous animals, your are going to get bitten. I am surprised that it is a Sting Ray that got him, because I always assumed it would be a snake or a Croc. I do believe that he did many of the crazy things he did for ratings. Have you ever seen one of his Blooper reels? I think he could have accomplished everything that he did, without the risks that he took, that eventually took his life. I think he was careless.
 
Maybe he could have not taken some of the risks he did and accomplish about the ame, but it might have taken him longer. I allso think that if he had been reckless, he would have been killed by an animal way earlier. He has encountered so many dangerous animals, any really reckless person would not have survived that or at least gotten disabled doing what he did.

I'd allso like to ad that at least he took risks for his ideals (that is what I belief), and not just for fun or money, like (lets face it) any herper owning larger boids and venomous snakes does in a way.
 
ecreipeoj said:
I think I am going to be in the minority on this one.
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I'll proudly stand with you on this, Joe. Bravo.

As I stated before, I'll give Irwin his props on reaching the numbers of people that he did. But it was, in my opinion, a lot of flash and hyperbole, which makes for good television. "Wild Kingdom" 's Marlon Perkins was staid and taciturn by comparison, provided great footage and narration, but was borrrrrrring to a generation of short attention span TV kiddies.

(No, I'm NOT wearing black socks with plaid shorts, admonishing all of you to get off my lawn.) :p


regards,
jazz
 
Vinman said:
I realy dont feel sorry that he died. To me he was a idot I feel sorry for his family. When I watched his show he adused the animals and stressed them out not like O'sha and all the others that do the same type of show. A sting ray will not attack you for no reason . Steve had to be harassing the poor thing for it to attack him.
I watch him on one of his shows that had a red spitting corba . He talk about how the snake did not like to wast its venom, that it took a lot of enegry to make the venom. . That it only had so much venom in is glands. The idot made the poor snake spit venom over and over again and again waisting percious venom.
I dont like the way he handled any of the animals . He was too rough with them and stressed them out. Now the other guys that do the same type of show respect the animals and are way more professional in the way they handled the animals .
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Whata thing to say on a snake forum.........Steve was a GREAT man. Great animal care taker. No lie. And you know it.
 
ecreipeoj said:
I think I am going to be in the minority on this one. I enjoyed watching Steve’s shows as much as anybody, but I was watching one not long ago and I told my girlfriend that the guy is crazy he wasn’t going to live long and I wouldn’t be surprised if his death was on the news tomorrow.

If you play with fire you are going to get burned. If you play with White Tigers you are going to get eaten, and if you play with poisonous animals, your are going to get bitten. I am surprised that it is a Sting Ray that got him, because I always assumed it would be a snake or a Croc. I do believe that he did many of the crazy things he did for ratings. Have you ever seen one of his Blooper reels? I think he could have accomplished everything that he did, without the risks that he took, that eventually took his life. I think he was careless.
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OK, your bravery brought me out of the woodwork on this one. I agree completely. Don't get me wrong, I'm very sad he died. However, once you become a parent, it's no longer all about you. I think if he was single man with no children I would have said, "It's his life, if that's the risk he wants to take, that's his choice". Once he made the decision to have children, he should have been more careful and thought more about their needs than his wants. Unfortunately the attention he craved and got by pushing the envelope clouded his thinking.

You could have talked me into doing anything "BC". Now, I no longer just weigh how consequences effect me, but also my family. I can't help but wonder if those kids will grow up thinking dad loved the dangerous animals more than them.

It is a sad loss for everyone. He did great things for the herp world, but sadly, the worst part is that it could have been prevented.
 
carol said:
OK, your bravery brought me out of the woodwork on this one. I agree completely. Don't get me wrong, I'm very sad he died. However, once you become a parent, it's no longer all about you. I think if he was single man with no children I would have said, "It's his life, if that's the risk he wants to take, that's his choice". Once he made the decision to have children, he should have been more careful and thought more about their needs than his wants. Unfortunately the attention he craved and got by pushing the envelope clouded his thinking.

You could have talked me into doing anything "BC". Now, I no longer just weigh how consequences effect me, but also my family. I can't help but wonder if those kids will grow up thinking dad loved the dangerous animals more than them.

It is a sad loss for everyone. He did great things for the herp world, but sadly, the worst part is that it could have been prevented.
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So you think his wife had also been clouded by all the attention they got? She even brought him their son when they did the 'croc savvy' action....?! I think that action might have been a step to far, at the other hand, he worked with crocs for about 30 years back then and knew the ones in his zoo very wel... I do think he honestly believed it was 100% safe. I do not believe he would take even the slightest risk of hurting his kids if he saw a risk. I think the point is more that he might have been underestimating some risks, not taking too large risks knowingly. But, what do we know about handling crocs.... :shrugs:
 
It seems obvious to me that there will always be people that can't take a hold of their compassion and empathy. I'm not exactly bothered by WHAT some people are saying, it's the way it's being said and so soon after somebody passing away. That's the bit that really confuses me at the moment, if I ever heard anybody slagging off a loved one (he had those to you know!) after they died i'd be furious. Seeing as this thread was about the sad day he died, the people coming here with negative comments are the exact same kind of people. It truely is a shame that some people don't have a heart, if you doubt his methods then there are far greater ways of expressing your opinion than being plain horrible. His family loved him AND what he did, as did many people both in Australia and out.
 
carol said:
You could have talked me into doing anything "BC". Now, I no longer just weigh how consequences effect me, but also my family. I can't help but wonder if those kids will grow up thinking dad loved the dangerous animals more than them.
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You see, I disagree completely with that...

Why give up your dreams and who you -are- just because you've had children? Especially when he was bringing those kids up in the mould his father brought him up in.

Maybe dad DID love those endangered species he was working to save - and in part, because he wanted to preserve those animals for his kids and for kids everywhere. Maybe that's why dad kept doing it.

He was a hell of a good spokesman for conservation - at least he got people up off their backsides and thinking about the non-cuddly ones for a change.
 
I realize that people have opinions, and a death doesn't change those opinions. What I don't get is people who can be glad he's dead or really nasty about it all. But I don't think the people who didn't like him should now pretend they did simply because he died.

The way I see it, Steve had two options when it came to his kids and his animals. He could either keep the animals and make sure the kids were familiar with them or lose the animals entirely. I mean, if he was really going to make a sacrifice for his kids' sake, he'd have to not only give up his pet crocodiles but pretty much give up his whole career because it meant he had to travel a lot.

The more I think about things, the more I think that what he did--introducing the baby to the crocodiles--was the right thing to do. Maybe his method was a little off, but the idea was right. These kids were going to grow up with these animals. He could hardly pretend they didn't exist. And I think some of the problem people had with this just boils down to what we think children are capable of, and in many cultures, people don't think they're capable of pretty much jack squat. Other cultures have taken a different approach and have been successful in that. It's way more of a mentality than a reality.
 
What I don't get is how so many people are soooo judgemental of what he did and how he did it. Let the poor man rest in peace and let his family mourn his loss without all the negativity.
 
jnite said:
What I don't get is how so many people are soooo judgemental of what he did and how he did it. Let the poor man rest in peace and let his family mourn his loss without all the negativity.
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Amen!, no one anywhere is to question his parenting abilities. Leave it be. He was a good man and he will be missed.
 
rushrulz said:
The more I think about things, the more I think that what he did--introducing the baby to the crocodiles--was the right thing to do. Maybe his method was a little off, but the idea was right. These kids were going to grow up with these animals. He could hardly pretend they didn't exist.
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Amen to this! It's like a child who grows up in a home with a gun. If we tell the child "Don't ever tough this!" and then leave it at that, they are going to pick it up sooner or later when we aren't around and the results can be devastating. If we instead chose to teach the child at a young age about guns, and their destructive power and the proper way to interact with and harness that power, then the chances of an accident will be reduced proportionally.

Children are capable of understanding how to behave in dangerous situations, but we have to teach them the hows and whys before we just turn 'em loose, you know??

I thought the entire "Baby Bob" incident was blown way out of proportion.
 
I was going to stay out of this thread, but something Dale mentioned changed my mind.

First off, I am sad that he died. He did do a lot for wildlife conservation, and also opened up a lot of people's minds to reptiles, herps, and animals in general.

His methods are just merely an adaptation of the times. When I was growing up in the 80s, there were animal/nature programs on the Discovery channel.

Animal Planet didn't exist yet. I fondly remember watching these peaceful, relaxing nature shows about whatever animal that was on. They usually were about an hour long, and featured 4 animals, each having its own 15 minute segment. In the background was a soft-spoken person (usually male). Back then, in a much slower paced world, those shows were always around. Either on Discovery, or on public television (PBS).

I used to love those shows with a passion. You could see the animals and pretend like you were right there in the field watching them. And that was the enjoyment factor, just WATCHING them. There was generally no interaction between the cameraman and the animals. For some reason, watching the animals without human interaction, was to me, quite magical.

I'm not saying that Steve's methods weren't OK. They were just SO different from that style. Two different worlds in my mind. But then again, he was just doing what he had to do to get people's attention. I don't think those soft-spoken nature shows would survive today, and he knew it.
I just hope that Terri, Bindi, and Bob keep it all going. :cheers:
 
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