And when I'm gone, just carry on, don't mourn/. Rejoice, every time you hear the sound of my voice
The Crocodile Hunter is gone.
Steven Robert Irwin was killed several days ago while diving off the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. He was a renowned wildlife expert and conservationist, as well as a popular spokesperson for Australian tourism. He leaves behind a wife and two kids whose loss is terrible, and whose grief should be respected. Maybe they shouldnt read the rest of this.
The first report that I read about his death was on was MSN .com. It said that the he had inadvertently cornered a stingray on the ocean floor, and that the critter reflexively lashed out with the toxin loaded barb at the end of its tail. The stinger pierced his heart. Someone in the MSN piece depicted the fatality as a "freak accident". Many of other articles that i've read about his death used this phrase as well.. While it is apparently true that the strike of a stingray is very seldom fatal, this description of Mr Irwin's demise seems a bit misguided. His public persona was largely defined by his proximity to dangerous creatures. He handled poisonous snakes. He sidled up to vultures in the wild as they fed. And of course, there were all those nasty crocs. During his life his particular brand of 'eXtreme zoology" had its critics, who felt that he sometimes antagonized and exploited the creatures he sought to educate us about.
To say that he deserved his death would be unfeeling and unfair, and that is not my point. But Irwin knowingly risked sudden annhilation at the jaws, claws, and tails of wild animals for much of his adult life. These adventures were his passion and his purpose. When his end came suddenly in the form of a stingray, during a trip he took to film a TV special called "Ocean's Deadliest", Steve Irwin was a lamentable victim. Not of a freak accident ,but of one of the occupational hazards of being The Crocodile Hunter.
Steven Robert Irwin was killed several days ago while diving off the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. He was a renowned wildlife expert and conservationist, as well as a popular spokesperson for Australian tourism. He leaves behind a wife and two kids whose loss is terrible, and whose grief should be respected. Maybe they shouldnt read the rest of this.
The first report that I read about his death was on was MSN .com. It said that the he had inadvertently cornered a stingray on the ocean floor, and that the critter reflexively lashed out with the toxin loaded barb at the end of its tail. The stinger pierced his heart. Someone in the MSN piece depicted the fatality as a "freak accident". Many of other articles that i've read about his death used this phrase as well.. While it is apparently true that the strike of a stingray is very seldom fatal, this description of Mr Irwin's demise seems a bit misguided. His public persona was largely defined by his proximity to dangerous creatures. He handled poisonous snakes. He sidled up to vultures in the wild as they fed. And of course, there were all those nasty crocs. During his life his particular brand of 'eXtreme zoology" had its critics, who felt that he sometimes antagonized and exploited the creatures he sought to educate us about.
To say that he deserved his death would be unfeeling and unfair, and that is not my point. But Irwin knowingly risked sudden annhilation at the jaws, claws, and tails of wild animals for much of his adult life. These adventures were his passion and his purpose. When his end came suddenly in the form of a stingray, during a trip he took to film a TV special called "Ocean's Deadliest", Steve Irwin was a lamentable victim. Not of a freak accident ,but of one of the occupational hazards of being The Crocodile Hunter.
posted by jayjay23 at 3:55 PM
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