Crocodile Hunter Brings Baby Boy to Work

[Teekie]

BRISBANE, Australia (Jan. 2) - ''Crocodile hunter'' Steve Irwin's latest stunt - hand feeding a large crocodile while holding his infant son - drew fire from viewers Saturday, a visit by police and the promise of a government investigation.

Before a crowd of onlookers at his reptile park in Beerwah, north of Brisbane, Irwin on Friday cradled his month-old son, Robert, under one arm and dangled a piece of chicken from the other hand in front of a 13-foot crocodile.

The croc quickly snapped up the meat.

''Good boy, Bob,'' Irwin said once the crocodile's jaws snapped shut, according to the tabloid Herald Sun.

The moment was also captured by Channel 7 and Channel 10, with viewers later jamming phone lines to express outrage at Irwin's actions, media reports said.

The stunt drew comparisons with singer Michael Jackson handling of his infant son in Berlin in November 2002.

The newspaper The Australian called Irwin's ''a bizarre act at his Sunshine Coast zoo that mirrored Michael Jackson's dangling of his newborn over a balcony.''

Irwin defended his actions, saying the tot was never in danger.

''I was in complete control of the crocodile. Robert was tucked right in my arm,'' said Irwin, the Herald Sun reported on Saturday.

His American wife, Terri, who handed the baby over to Irwin in the enclosure and giggled at the spectacle, agreed.

''It was a wonderful sensory experience for him (the baby). He dug it,'' she said.

Police officers went to the zoo to tell Irwin that people were objecting to the incident, but said he had not committed any criminal offense, local media reported Saturday.

Queensland state's Families Minister Judy Spence has called for unedited tapes of the incident and officials from the state's workplace safety authority said they would also be investigating. Under workplace safety laws unauthorized people cannot enter a crocodile enclosure which is part of a public display.

''I have seen the television footage and while I have no doubt the Irwins love their children very much, I believe it was an error of judgement to place a baby in a potentially dangerous situation,'' Spence said in a statement.

Child support and family groups said Irwin's behavior was almost like child abuse and he should never have exposed his son to such peril.

''Most parents would cringe at the sight of such things,'' Bill Muehlenberg of the Australian Family Association told the Herald Sun. ''One slip, one fall and he is the crocodile's lunch.''

Irwin's danger-filled wildlife programs are carried in the United States by the Animal Planet network and he starred in the popular 2002 comedy, ''The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course.''

The gregarious Irwin was among the few to score an invitation to Prime Minister John Howard's barbecue for visiting President Bush in October.

His Australia Zoo reptile park also is a big tourist attraction.

01/02/04 21:11 EST

More info.. go here..http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/01/02/australia.crocodileman/index.html

 

[nozobo]

Redrum Crocodile

 

[Fly Free]

i read that article last nite and thought he was just plainly STUPID!!!!!!!! he is now added on MY list with Michael Jackson as parents who doesnt give a shit abt their kids and their wellbeing!!!!!!

 

[VamPyroX]

Hey, give him a break.

I think it's fine. He's been with crocodiles for many years and he knows what he's doing. If he didn't know what he was doing, he wouldn't have done this trick.

If you think he was wrong, then it was an error on his part. People should not be comparing him with Michael Jackson either.

Both times, the baby was fine... no abuse there. Sure, both made stupid movies... but that doesn't mean we should go crazy over the media telling everyone how stupid they were. Which is worse, what they did... or you spanking your baby? I'd say spanking your baby is worse cuz that's physical harm!

 

[Levonian]

I spent a few minutes Googling the subject of crocodile attacks, and I found some interesting stuff. Crocodile attacks are fairly uncommon—they average less than one a year in Australia. They are also very unlikely to attack out of the water, and fresh water crocs are far less dangerous than salt water ones. So the risk to the child was probably minimal. Wild chimpanzees are more dangerous to an infant than crocodiles. Jane Goodall has documented dozens of cases of chimpanzees snatching and eating human infants. For this reason, children under the age of two are not permitted in any of Uganda’s or Rwanda’s National Parks.

 

[Steel X]

Hey, give him a break.

I think it's fine. He's been with crocodiles for many years and he knows what he's doing. If he didn't know what he was doing, he wouldn't have done this trick.

If you think he was wrong, then it was an error on his part. People should not be comparing him with Michael Jackson either.

Both times, the baby was fine... no abuse there. Sure, both made stupid movies... but that doesn't mean we should go crazy over the media telling everyone how stupid they were. Which is worse, what they did... or you spanking your baby? I'd say spanking your baby is worse cuz that's physical harm!

I totally agree with that dude over there.

 

[Steel X]

I spent a few minutes Googling the subject of crocodile attacks, and I found some interesting stuff. Crocodile attacks are fairly uncommon—they average less than one a year in Australia. They are also very unlikely to attack out of the water, and fresh water crocs are far less dangerous than salt water ones. So the risk to the child was probably minimal. Wild chimpanzees are more dangerous to an infant than crocodiles. Jane Goodall has documented dozens of cases of chimpanzees snatching and eating human infants. For this reason, children under the age of two are not permitted in any of Uganda’s or Rwanda’s National Parks.

chimpanzees eating...humans? that's so...CANNIBAL!

 

[Cheri]

My son is a Fan of Steve Irwin ..And I do know he has many years of expen with the Crocodile.. But.. seeing on tv the acutal thing he did was holding the baby in his arm and feeding the Crocodile chicken really made me have a goose bumps... I mean.. I believe he knows what he is doing but the baby in his arm just creeps me out... Im not saying he is a bad father firgures im sure he wants his son to see what he does and what he loves to do that his life but I would rather him not to put the baby where he is in where the Crocodiles are.. Its safer that way accidents do happen without knowing.. so better be safe than sorry u know what i mean? just my thought...

 

[Levonian]

chimpanzees eating...humans? that's so...CANNIBAL!

I never thought about it that way before. I’ve always thought that when humans eat chimpanzee meat that it’s almost like cannibalism, but I never thought about it the other way around. You wanna know the weird thing? They don’t even eat them. They tear the baby apart, eat a couple of bites, then spit it out and drop the baby on the ground. Human fat tastes too strange to them. A few years ago Frodo, the alpha male of the Kasekela community in Kibale National Park in Uganda, snatched a park employee’s baby. He ran off into the bushes with the baby, tore it’s arm off, and took two bites. Then he just threw the baby on the ground and walked away. The chimps don’t really know any better. Wild chimps catch and eat red colobus monkeys all the time, and they think human babies are just another type of monkey. Jane Goodall kept her son locked in a metal cage until the age of five to protect him from the chimps.

 

[Steel X]

I never thought about it that way before. I’ve always thought that when humans eat chimpanzee meat that it’s almost like cannibalism, but I never thought about it the other way around. You wanna know the weird thing? They don’t even eat them. They tear the baby apart, eat a couple of bites, then spit it out and drop the baby on the ground. Human fat tastes too strange to them. A few years ago Frodo, the alpha male of the Kasekela community in Kibale National Park in Uganda, snatched a park employee’s baby. He ran off into the bushes with the baby, tore it’s arm off, and took two bites. Then he just threw the baby on the ground and walked away. The chimps don’t really know any better. Wild chimps catch and eat red colobus monkeys all the time, and they think human babies are just another type of monkey. Jane Goodall kept her son locked in a metal cage until the age of five to protect him from the chimps.

so i guess we humans don't really taste as good as apes do eh? lol

 

[Levonian]

This is one of the chimps at Kibale NP eating a monkey. You can’t really see much because the leaves are in the way, but you can see the tail and part of the torso.

 

[VamPyroX]

This is one of the chimps at Kibale NP eating a monkey. You can’t really see much because the leaves are in the way, but you can see the tail and part of the torso.

Eek! What's next? People eating people? Oh wait, that's already been done! Double eek!

 

[tekkmortal]

Well, where does the story "Tarazan" fit? In the story the monkeys found him when he was a baby. Instead of eating him, they came to embrace him as if he was one of them. :|

 

[Levonian]

Nothing was known about primate behavior when Tarzan was written. No western researcher had ever studied the great apes in their natural habitat prior to 1958. The first was George Schaller, who conducted a two year field study in the Belgian Congo culminating in 1960. He published the results of his study in his groundbreaking book The Year of the Gorilla. He was later followed by Jane Goodall in 1961, and by Dian Fossey in 1966. Goodall and Fossey have done more to advance the understanding and preservation of the African great ape species than any other human being. Fossey’s contribution is particularly remarkable—she single-handedly brought international attention to the plight of the mountain gorillas, and is responsible for the enactment of strict laws which are now in place that protect them. If Fossey had never gone to Africa, the mountain gorillas would in all probability be extinct right now.

 

[VamPyroX]

Nothing was known about primate behavior when Tarzan was written. No western researcher had ever studied the great apes in their natural habitat prior to 1958. The first was George Schaller, who conducted a two year field study in the Belgian Congo culminating in 1960. He published the results of his study in his groundbreaking book The Year of the Gorilla. He was later followed by Jane Goodall in 1961, and by Dian Fossey in 1966. Goodall and Fossey have done more to advance the understanding and preservation of the African great ape species than any other human being. Fossey’s contribution is particularly remarkable—she single-handedly brought international attention to the plight of the mountain gorillas, and is responsible for the enactment of strict laws which are now in place that protect them. If Fossey had never gone to Africa, the mountain gorillas would in all probability be extinct right now.

Yeah... if you want more information, I recommend you watch the movie... Gorillas In The Mist starring Sigourney Weaver. It's based on the autobiographical 1983 book by naturalist Dian Fossey. Before the book could be brought before the cameras, Fossey had been mysteriously killed; her death provides a logical, if somewhat ghoulish climax to the film.

 

[Levonian]

Gorillas in the Mist is an excellent introduction to Fossey’s work in Rwanda, but most of it is a gross distortion of the events that really occurred during her first few years there. The meeting with Leakey at the beginning of the movie never happened—she actually met Leakey at an archeological excavation in Tanzania. Fossey asked Leakey for the job working with the gorillas, and he immediately gave it to her. The love affair with the National Geographic photographer also never happened. Fossey actually had affairs with several different married men while she was in Rwanda. The cool thing about that movie though, is that filming started while Fossey was still alive, and she played a major role in it’s production. The gorillas in that movie are Fossey’s real gorillas. Fossey’s own book is also an extremely one-sided view of her life and work. Fossey wrote the book to portray herself as she wanted history to remember her. If you want an accurate accounting of the events as they really happened, read Woman in the Mists by Farley Mowat. Mowat used Fossey’s own diary mixed with her own journalistic evidence to write the book.

Dian Fossey was in reality a very disturbed woman. She was prone to extreme jealousy and paranoia, and she would frequently try to ingratiate herself sexually with men who were 20 years younger than herself. If they rejected her advances, she would do everything she could to make their lives miserable. She would also stop at nothing to make enemies with the locals, whom she referred to as ‘wogs’. Not only did she destroy the poacher’s camps and snares, she also went after the Bantu herders who grazed their cattle within the park boundaries—sometimes resorting to shooting their cows. It’s no small wonder that somebody wanted to do her in, as the Bantus had been herding that land for hundreds of years. Fossey has prevailed in the end, though. Rwanda’s National Parks are now heavily protected sanctuaries, free of the corrupt rangers, the poachers, and the cattle grazers that existed there in the 1960’s. The biggest threat now to the remaining mountain gorillas is the Ebola virus.

 

[Opal]

Redrum Crocodile

Who? me? hee hee

 

[Opal]

Steve Irwin Publicity seeker

You have no idea the condemnation that Steve Irwin is receiving in Australian newspapers. No one should have the right to put a child in harms way and I don't care how "experienced" he is, the child is not. He claims it's the same as people who live on busy roads have to teach their children about traffic but they don't do it by taking the children into the middle of the road. Specially not babies. If he wants to teach his child, he needs to wait until his child can understand his speech and respond. As a baby this is just not possible. His excuses, like his actions, suck!!!

He claims he will do it again which shows he has not learnt from his stupidity.

Two letter's from Australia's Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne, word for word.

"I've always thought of Steve Irwin as an egotistical idiot and using his baby as just another prop for his act says it all. As for the childs mother, words fail me"

Second letter

"It is all very well for Mr Irwin to say he had the croc under control but that's what Sigfried and Roy thought about their tiger.
If Steve falls, is the animal still under control? As Mr Irwin is known to say, it's not the animal's fault, it's only following instinct.
Irwin's instinct should be to keep morsel-sized personnel out of the croc pen"

I have not seen a letter or comment yet that supports his actions.

He was nominated for Australian of the year and I hope that this stupid action will cost him. I don't want a person who does things like that as the "example" we should follow.

 

[illustrator]

Steve trust himself, but nobody doesn't. Therefore, we scary like sissy.

 

[VamPyroX]

Steve trust himself, but nobody doesn't. Therefore, we scary like sissy.

Exactly. Everyone is just paranoid. They should leave him alone... jeez.