Oh, Jesus Christ. Steve Irwin’s little stunt may have been ill-advised, but I can’t believe some of the comments I’m reading, here and in the parallel threads. World Eater, PrimaFlora and TeaElle are literally calling for the authorities take Irwin’s children away.
Good grief! Do any of you let your children ride BMX bikes? Those things are killers! And what about Little League Baseball? Hundreds of children are injured in sports every day, and yet the parents blissfully allow them to take the field! MONSTROUS, I TELL YOU! Hell, I fear for the millions of children who ride those big yellow buses to school every day…those things are death traps!!
Ok seriously…how widespread is the outrage, anyway? A cursory check of the TV news channels failed to locate the story, and I missed Jay Leno last night. Is this strictly an SDMB thing?
I think he had a lapse in good judgement and his wife probably chewed his ass out for it later. I dont think he would intentionally cause harm to his child. I guess you can expect something like that from a guy who plays with crocs for a living.
I dunno. I think the issue is that an infant relies totally and completely on its parents to keep him/her safe and snuggly. He/she has no say in the matter. An adult has the option of putting him/herself in harms way and if, for example, Steve Irwin were munched to death by a croc, we’d all say wow and that’s awful, but probably agree that that was the risk he was willing to take. However, if the croc went wild when he was holding his child (which is possible, even if the thing was drugged), I’d feel his actions were criminal.
Bullshit that I am calling for the Irwins to lose their kids – I think the involvement of Family Services to educate the fuckwit that one month old babies don’t belong in crocodile enclosures may be needed though.
I think he and Terri could both do with some PR training. Yesterday’s stunt was to have Bindi swim in a pool outside the croc enclosure flailing round helplessly and Terri said, “That’s my girl, Bindi Irwin, the other white meat”. God, you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. There’s also a sidebar in the Sunday Mail with him telling how he rescued a carpet python for her, gave it to her to hold, told her to watch out as it was a bit bitey (ya think?), it bit her right on the lip and then the wonderparent said, told you he would bite you and it bit her again on the nose.
Now wouldn’t a normal parent get the freaking snake away from the kid after the first bite? Or is it good wildlife education to teach Bindi and Bob that snake bites are not a big deal around the Australia Zoo?
Everyone here is talking about the guy holding a one month old baby while feeding a crocodile and you’re talking about much older kids riding bikes and buses. Do you understand that there is a more than slight difference between an infant that is one month old and a kid who is 7+ years old?
New shows:
Bungy Jumping With Babies Taking the Toddler Along on the Deer Hunt Extreme Baby Skydiving Climbing Everest With Jr. In Search of Great Whites With the Little Ones
I am sure there are NFL quarterbacks who have infants they adore so why not use them as the football? Fathers who love to do carpentry can have the baby operate the nail gun. Those proud fathers in the military can find all sorts of uses for their babies such as using them as laser-guided baby bombs.
Dangling kiddies near crocodiles? Excellent decision I say. Involve the tourists I say - and their kiddies. Make it a law upon entry into the land. Let the world know that we Australians are mad as rabid dogs in the midday sun.
The sooner the rest of world realises that we’re all insane, and that further, if you visit us that all of us have huge crocodiles as backyard pets - the better.
Then, just maybe, the rest of the world will forget about us, and let us fade back into anonymous obscurity - whereupon we will get back to doing what we do best - that is, being the world’s best kept secret.
The sooner Steve Irwin falls from grace, and drags his US TV ratings with him - the better. Move along now, all you overseas tourists… nothing to see here anymore… move along now.
Irwin thinks he was in control of the crocodile, huh? Siegfried and Roy thought they were in control of their tigers, too. If he and his wife have forgotten they’re dealing with wild animals here, it’s time they both took a vacation from their work.
I’ve stated this before: Siegfried and Roy, as much as they may have loved the tigers, were attempting to tame wild beasts. White tigers aren’t house cats, and they’re not here to entertain us. Could we stay away and admire from a distance, perhaps?
As for Steve’s stunt: folks - we put our kids in danger every day: driving in the car, owning that back-yard pool, letting them ride their bikes down the street.
Steve took a calculated risk, and the odds were much more in his child’s favor (due to his experience with crocs) than ours. It is what it is.
And what? The crocodiles are members of a forgotten civilization who politely ask if they may eat you before they chomp?
I don’t care if Steve Irwin is the recognized king of crocodilians, that’s an unsedated predator with a mouth full of three inch long teeth that can move it’s own body length in less than a second.I have no problem with Irwin deciding to risk his own health and life going toe-to-toe in some kind of Darwinian game of chicken, but he shouldn’t be allowed to put a one-month-old at that kind of risk, any more than a construction worker should be allowed to bring his one-month-old to the top of the 1000 foot skyscraper girder skeleton to show off just because he’s an expert at walking the steel. Parents rights be damned, that’s bullshit!
So, county, if someone took his one-month-old son to work in the steel mill, and the baby fell into a furnace and burned to death, was that okay because it was okay with him and his wife?
What if the baby didn’t fall into the furnace? Was it okay to take that risk with him because the dad is an “expert” at working in a steel mill?
Is it okay to let a one-month-old play in the middle of the street because its father is an expert mechanic? “Oh, I know cars! He’ll be okay!”
Is it okay to let a one-month-old skydive with mommy and daddy because they’re both expert skydivers?
If Steve Irwin weren’t “The Crocodile Hunter” I think there’d be a lot more outrage about this. Because he’s famous and for some reason people are reading “expert herpetologist” to mean “has some type of hypnotic control over all reptiles”, there are at least as many people screaming to leave him alone as there are screaming about the baby’s endangerment.
You’re missing the point - jayjay - if you’re NOT a Nascar racer and drive with children in the car, you’re putting them in harm’s way, because you don’t have the skills to evade an accident.
I’m astounded at the “outrage” over this (ill-conceived, I grant you) taping. I’d like to see the focus move to those who are putting their children in danger…lessee, Not using seat belts? Unguarded swimming pools? Electrical plugs not covered? Small objects laying about? Mini-blind pulls in reach of little hands? Sharp corners not covered? Uncovered stove-top? Batteries dead on smoke alarm? Haven’t shown kiddos how to exit in the event of fire? No fire extinguisher? No intruder alarm? Kids don’t know home number? Haven’t had them fingerprinted yet?
If you drive your baby somewhere, and you crash and everyone dies, is that okay? Or to be less faceious, how is it less okay than something like this, especially given that if anyone knows the relative risks of driving vs. crocodile proximity, it’s him?
As has been pointed out, we expose children to risks all the time. To steal your example, if someone took a baby to a steel mill, and absolutely nothing happened, there would be no reason for outrage.
blonde, perhaps you can explain the value in exposing the baby to a nonzero risk at all? A kid in a stock car will probably live, but if he isn’t in the car at all, he certainly will. With nothing to gain by the activity, that’s reckless endangerment.
The fact that Irwin claims to have been in control of the crocodile (!!!) at all times shows that he himself didn’t weigh the risks in this action.