Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead

News.com.au ^ | September 4, 2006

[lunarbicep]

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said. It is understood he was killed by a sting-ray barb that went through his chest.

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary and that's when it occured.

[Fawn]

Such a horrible loss! His poor wife and kids.....

[4yearlurker]

I'm with you. This guy sounds like he's so smart he's stupid. RIP Mr. Irwin.

[SlowBoat407]

Sorry, it shouldn't take a shrink to figure this one out.

That's what most people say when the indulge in psych 101, or when they try to anyalyze somone from a public persona. I prefer to think that he enjoyed what he did. If he had a death wish, he'd have been dead a lot sooner, and from something a lot more dangerous than an accidental stingray barb in the heart.

[antonia]

Prayers for his family. I loved watching Steve and his shows. My kids have him on their "Wiggles" dvd's. This will affect so many people, what a terrible accident.

[Alamo-Girl]

I join in prayers for his loved ones as they deal with his homegoing.

[George W. Bush]

What's insane is thinking his family would choose to watch it over and over again.

What's insane is that some people's first thought apparently is the hope of an instant replay.

[George W. Bush]

Certainly, we can't have predators running around residential areas, but I think that his antics did help to reduce a lot of the mindless fear that many had about dangerous creatures.

My guess is there will be plenty of mindless fear about stingrays now.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"...I always knew he would be killed by a wild animal though."

That was a given.

[beckysueb]

How terribly sad. He brought knowledge of animals to people. He had so much enthusiasm for life. He just loved what he did. We just loved him. God rest his soul. Prayers for Terri and the kids.

[WolfRunnerWoman]

Dude, dontcha know that you can’t point out hypocritical voyeurism here? Have the Natalee Holloway and “runaway bride” sob-fests taught you nothing? Not to worry. This will pass as soon as a new tsk-tsk event occurs.

[TexanByBirth]

This was not what my children and I were expecting either when we got up and turned on the TV this Labor Day morning.

My kids really enjoyed his show. It is yet another life lesson that I unfortunately and tragically have to talk to my children about.

Prayers to his family and associates!

PS: Once again I am shaking my head at the cynics and jerks that come out of the woodwork on this site

[Zebra]

Having your n**ts bitten off by a Laplander, that's how I want to go.

[George W. Bush]

Dude, dontcha know that you can’t point out hypocritical voyeurism here? Have the Natalee Holloway and “runaway bride” sob-fests taught you nothing? Not to worry. This will pass as soon as a new tsk-tsk event occurs.

Doh! Yep, Oprah never runs out of material, does she?

[HairOfTheDog]

The poor guy was afflicted with some kind of death wish, and he died while tempting death.

I think rather, he was afflicted with an intense life wish! He didn't want to die, he wanted to grab life around the throat and wrestle it :~) He lived and loved harder than the fearful naysayers, and his death is a great loss to many because of it.

He would have lived longer if he'd had an interest in something else, perhaps music or Australian football.

He'd have lived longer if he'd been interested in knitting... but then again, maybe he just would have changed the way we think about knitting :~)

[cake_crumb]

What hypocritical voyeurism? His show was good, it was extremely educational, the man wasn't just a showman but an expert in his field. We never watched the Natilee Haloway hype and turned the TV off when the media restarted their Joan Benet crap too. We DID, however, enjoy watching croc hunter, but maybe you have to be the type of person who will catch a poisonous reptile to understand that sort of thing.

[cake_crumb]

"My guess is there will be plenty of mindless fear about stingrays now."

There will be plenty of mindless hype anyhow. Those of us who live or lived on the coast have a healthy respect for stingrays....we have that in the hopes of remaining healthy. On the Eastern Shore, stingrays frequently get scooped up with the oyster shells crushed for the Eastern Shore version of "dirt" roads and for driveways. We always had to watch for them on the freshly spread stuff and remove them before local kids, driven by curiosity, got hurt badly. Like the head of a rattlesnake not properly taken care of, dead stingrays remain very dangerous.

In addition, almost anyone who's raised clams for years and takes the Monitor out into the bay to bury or harvest them, or anyone who's spent a long time running crab pots, can give you a firsthand horror story about the damage stingrays are capable of.

It's unlikely anyone in the media will bother with the public's right to know the truth of stingrays...in fact, tomorrow they'll probably be reporting on some "stingrays are people too" rallys.

[RDTF]

I know - whatever happened to respect the dead? They should hold their tongues for a respectable amount of time, whatever that may be.

[jhw61]

What an awsome post!

[OKSooner]

Sorry, I don't mean to offend you but to call this an accident is like saying a fatality from Russian Roulette was an accident. The guy was aware of the risks from poisonous creatures, especially poisonous sea creatures, and unfortunately for himself, his family and friends, and his fans, he overplayed his hand, with tragic results.

Your point that he "would have been dead a lot sooner" makes my point because he IS dead a lot sooner, at the young age of 44 when he still had so many years of productive life ahead of him.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed his show the few times that I saw it, but in every episode I saw except one he was handling some terribly poisonous creature, usually in circumstances where it could have been avoided. After awhile the novelty wore off and I saw no reason to watch after that.