[OldFriend]

He gets the Siegried & Roy award for utter stupidity.

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[Slings and Arrows]

JD followup ping!

[beaversmom]

saying it was important to teach kids about danger

I hope that one month old learned something from his lesson. Stay away from DAD!

Actually Steve Irwin seems like a good guy, and I'm sure he did have as close to complete control as you can get but it just doesn't look good to have a baby out there while you are feeding a hungry croc.

It's one thing to do a show and let people think you are putting your own life in danger. It's another thing to bring the kids into the act. He didn't have very good judgement bringing the baby out there.

Tonight on the news they had a quote from Terri, the wife. She said something to the affect--"It was a great sensory experience for him. He really dug it!"

If that had been my baby I would have gone nuts. Of course, I probably wouldn't be married to a Croc Hunter in the first place. The guy named his daughter, Bindy, after a croc for goodness sake!

[Drammach]

Did the Croc Hunter have a Michael Jackson Moment?

Sure looks like it..
Just glad it didn't turn out bad..
Crocodiles bite..
Nothing personal
It's in their nature..

[RIGHT IN LAS VEGAS]

I am hurt, I am as hurt as I get!

He ain't felt hurt until he loses a hind-quarter!

[GeronL]

It was dumb dumb dumb dumb.

Crikey! what was he thinking?

[tkathy]

I think the Stockholm Syndrome overtakes these fools who try to make crocs, bears, etc., into cuddley pets.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Fox just showed the clip. The girl on fox asked what is
the name of the boy.
Someone said food.
After feeding the crock he then put the child on the
ground and acted like the 3 month old child was walking.

[scouse]

But it's all about perceived danger ... I was in complete control.

On Thursday night I was watching a program showing another Australian crocodile expert who was hand feeding a croc' he had owned for a long, long time and he too was in complete control. However the croc' didn't seem to realize who was controlling who and when it was offered a piece of chicken it turned sideways and bit the trainer on the foot.

[Zipporah]

A follow-up to the story:

Defiant: "I am not an irresponsible parent," said croc hunter Steve Irwin, pictured with his daughter Bindi yesterday. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Croc Hunter snaps back

By CHRIS TINKLER and FRANCES WHITING
04jan04

A DISTRAUGHT Steve Irwin is considering withdrawing from
public life, after being condemned across the world for holding his baby boy within reach of a crocodile.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald Sun last
night, the tearful Crocodile Hunter said he and his
family were "absolutely devastated".
The emotional outburst comes after a roller-coaster two days for Mr Irwin and wife, Terri.

On Friday, Mr Irwin shocked the world by dangling baby Bob
inches from the jaws of a 4m crocodile, while feeding
the reptile a dead chicken in a live show at his
Sunshine Coast park.

The Queensland Families Department said it would examine
unedited tapes of Friday's incident for health
and safety breaches and Irwin received a
dressing down from police.

In an act of defiance, Mr Irwin and wife Terri sparked
fresh controversy by sending their daughter into a
crocodile enclosure with elephants and calling her "white
meat", in a live show yesterday.

Five-year-old Bindi was told to enter a new enclosure next
to a crocodile pen, then told to splash around to
encourage the reptiles to swim out.

Before a dumbfounded crowd, mum Terri said: "Flail around
and look helpless, that's the girl.

"The problem is if the crocodile comes in too quickly then
I have to buy new floaties because they always pop."

Bindi was then left alone in the water as three fully-grown
elephants entered, and stamped and trumpeted a metre
away.

A zoo official said a gate connecting the pool to the croc
pen was shut during the show, but patrons were less
than impressed.

Queenslander of the Year, Mr Irwin later stormed out of a
press conference outside the zoo during questioning
over his first stunt with one-month-old Bob.

But last night a visibly upset Mr Irwin poured out his
heart, saying he was simply carrying on his family
tradition and doing what his father had done for him.

"I am not a bad parent, I am not an irresponsible a parent,
I am not a bad father," Mr Irwin said.

"I would lay down my life for Bindi and Bob, so to hear
people say that it was a publicity stunt, that I'm just
like Michael Jackson dangling his baby over a balcony,
well, it just tears me up inside."

Mr Irwin said while he understood the distress the footage
may have caused, he also appealed for people to
understand that theirs was not "a normal family living
with a normal back yard".

"My parents raised me among crocs and snakes and some of
the most dangerous creatures in the world, right here
at Australia Zoo," he said.

"They exposed me to them from a very early age, not because
they were irresponsible, but because they loved me."

"I caught my first brown snake when I was four years old, Gmy first croc at eight.

"Now my kids are just like me, growing up at the zoo," Mr
Irwin said.

Terri said she had never seen her husband so upset.

Mr Irwin said he was "not sure" what he would do next,
saying he needed time alone with his family to "think things over".

"I know people will say, 'Well you invited us all into your
lives, and this is what happens when you do that' and
fair enough, I did invite the whole world into our
lives, into our family.

"But I do that to spread the word about wildlife, about our
passion for wildlife.

"Now I'm really questioning if that's the right way to go."

[aruanan]

And you know, each year millions of adults risk their infants' health by carrying them high enough above the ground under icy/snowy/rainy/muddy conditions that a simple slip could easily kill or disable them. And tens of millions more risk their children's lives by putting them into machines that move at high velocity along manmade stone paths with nothing but the judgment of the parent to keep it within painted marks on the pathways. The difference between what Irwin did and the two examples above is that most people are familiar with the two and have unconsciously discounted their danger due to their familiarity and are unfamiliar with the other and are overreacting based on their lack of familiarity and their imagined fear over being close to something that could kill them, even though they stand a greater chance of death driving down the freeway.

[gcruse]

But this must be happening for a reason.

The implication being that God favors feeding kids to alligators?
Paging Abraham.

[avg_freeper]

Some have implied that the media had ulterior motives for their recent Steve Irwin feeding frenzy. Namely his overwhelming support for John Howard.

Steve had this to say during a visit by the prime minister:

"In front of us right now is the greatest leader Australia has ever had and the greatest leader in the world,"

This would be analogous to an American entertainer claiming that Bush was the greatest president that America has ever had. That entertainer would be blackballed immediately. The media would lay in wait for the first opportunity to bring out the sharp knives and cut this entertainer down to size.

Steve Irwin just seems like a very straight forward guy to me that says and does what he knows is right. Regardless of how it may look to others.

[KangarooJacqui]

Way to go, Steve. Just the publicity Australia needs. NOT.

I'm in Auckland, New Zealand right now, and this is all over the TV and radio news here (I haven't dared look at the papers.)

Truly an embarrassing time to be an Australian. Shame, Steve, shame...