Steve Irwin

[marywebgirl]

I feel so bad for his family. I remember seeing him and Terri on Oprah and you could tell how crazy they were about each other and that they must tone it down for the kid friendly shows.

[peardream72]

I cannot believe Steve Irwin is dead. Maybe because of all the close scrapes on his show that he walked away from, he just somehow seemed untouchable. I remember back in the late 90’s when his shows first started appearing on The Animal Planet. Despite the exuberance that could, and did at times, border on self-parody there was no doubting this man genuinely believed in animal conservation and passionately loved what he was doing.

My thoughts and prayers goes out to his family and to the folks at the Australia Zoo.

RIP

[Deleted]

He meant so much to me as an inspiration...our house is in dark gloom today with this news. He was such a good person who genuinely tried to make the world better. I pray to God that his family can endure this terrible time.

[Augustus]

I was pretty shocked when I heard he died today.

He could be so damned annoying, but what was evident was his love and respect for nature. And to die because of a freak accident with a stingray, who would have thought that with his many close encounters with the world's most venomous snakes, deadly crocs and other creatures.

What I do find befitting is that he died while doing what he loved. Busy with showing the world mother nature and her creatures he loved and respected. My thoughts are definitely with his family and close friends at his Zoo.

[Deleted]

As for him - I feel about his death the same way I do the guy who filmed grizzly bears all his life in Alaska, and who was mauled to death along with his girlfriend - I'm rolling my eyes.

I don't think there's a comparison. Treadwell (the Grizzly guy) didn't know about bears, wasn't a trained professional, and didn't want to actually study bears in a legitimate context. He could have prevented his death and his death was directly traced to his stupidity and his willful ignorance of safety standards.

OTOH, Steve was a trained zoo professional and had decades experience in animal handling. It may seem dangerous to some but a lot of jobs are more dangerous than that and from what I've seen on the show, Steve always adhered to basic safety standards, especially in his zoo. And from reports this accident wasn't related to his work with animals aside from what got him in the water in the first place, filming a documentary. He glided over a stingray hidden in the sand while in shallow water and was unlucky as to where he got hit. He probably didn't even see the ray. You or I or any one of the thousands of tourists who snorkel and scuba in the Great Barrier Reef could've suffered the same thing. I don't think anything short of a metal chest plate could've prevented a direct hit like that, not even a normal wetsuit that would repel most other stings.

[muffinette]

Aw, man. My thoughts and condolences go out to his young family. He went too soon.

[Sunnyhorse]

My thoughts exactly, PoorFrances -- comparing Irwin to the "grizzly guy" is like comparing a policeman who's shot in the line of duty to one of those weekend-warrior militia idiots who gets plugged by one of his buddies while they're out in the woods playing commando.

[Deleted]

This makes me so unbelievably sad for some reason. My heart just breaks for his wife and kids, they seemed like such a close, loving family.

[polygal]

You know, in the "people who do stupid shit on camera" group, I always thought David Blaine would be the first to go. Steve at least seemed to be knowledgable about the animals he was manhandling.

I hope his daughter never finds out the whole truth. It'd be so devastating.

[Ella]

I was just over on YouTube and I typed in his name and I came across a clip of Steve crying over the body of a croc named Mary who had died in it's sleep. He said that it was the best way to go....while sleeping. It's a sad clip but it shows how much he really loved animals. I wish I could link the video...maybe someone else will find it and link it? I wish I could love my job the way He did.