What? Because he knows crocs, he’s incapable of slipping and falling? He’s incapable of losing his grip on the baby??. I’ve seen mothers lose the grip of a child and have to get a better one while in the mall.
I think it would be a little more difficult to do with a crocodile chopping on your privates.
I vote ‘stupid stunt’.
(same reply as I posted in MPSIMS. Basically the same thread, so same reply. Dunno if it’s against the rules or not, tho.)
Okay, the “walking baby” thing doesn’t sound too safe, given how fast a croc can run. But while in Steve’s arms, the croc would’ve had a hard time getting to the baby.
Haven’t looked at the video, since I’m on a good ol’ fashioned dialup.
I mean, c’mon. Having a dog in the house is a threat to a baby (apx 17 young children a year die from dog bites/attacks - not to mention the number who are permanently scarred). My friend’s younger brother got bitten by their dog - their pet dogs that they had for years - on the face. He has a huge crescent scar on his cheek from where the dog bit through to the point where you could see his teeth.
The point is, that a lot of parents put their kids in dangerous situations without knowing the risks involved. He knew and understood the risks. Not to mention that he must have a pretty good idea of how to respond to danger - how long has he been working with crocs without losing any bits and pieces?
And about the wild and unpreditable animal bit, yes they are. And I’m sure he kept that in mind when doing this stunt. A lot of people don’t keep that in mind around dogs.
Should he have done this? Well, no. But I’m not going to say that it was the most irresponsible thing a parent could ever do, because it’s not.
But we KNOW the crocs are going to lunge at him.
Hell, that’s why we watch the show in the 1st place. (Yes, I have secretly wished that the croc actually catches him)
Speak for yourself, hon. I watch the show to educate myself about animals - specifically, those that still remain on Earth. Steve’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but you can’t dispute the fact that he attempts to bring us a little closer to the creatures amongst us.
How many of you are willing to have the custody of your child determined on a day to day basis by popular vote of the SDMB?
If a video tape of the dumbest thing you ever did with / to your child was put out, would you all still vote to throw all the rocks and call all the authorities that you seem to be willing to against this guy?
Much ado about nothing.
I think I’ll reserve judgement unitl the SDMB crocodile experts weigh in.
…Crikey!
Steve Irwin could slip and fall with his baby on the sidewalk, in the grocery store, or on his staircase. He’s probably safer with the baby in a croc pen than anywhere else in the world, because that’s where his expertise and focus are. I’ve never seen him act, in any situation, without his first priority being the safety of all animals and people involved.
With or without publicity, that event would have happened. I suspect teaching the children to cherish crocodiles is a big deal in the Irwin household.
Apparently you never saw the episode when he was digging around in a nest of rattlesnakes. After grabbing a lone, sunning snake by the tail and talking extensively about how fast/dangerous/poisonous/ornery it was, he got distracted by the nearby nest that he hadn’t noticed before. He held the snake out behind his back for his wife to take, STILL BY THE TAIL, as he headed for the nest. I’ve never seen a look of sheer panic like the one on her face as the wildly swinging snake’s head came within inches of her leg. I stopped watching the show at that point.
Everyone’s talking about the unpredictability of the croc- sure, that’s something to take into serious consideration. But what about the unpredictability of the baby? Babies squirm. They stretch. They reach out for things. They’re slippery little critters, and easy to accidentally drop. Certainly the risk is far less for a one-month old, but still… maybe we can be reasonably sure that the croc isn’t going to do anything stupid, but we can’t be so sure about the baby.
Steve and his wife are adults, with years of education and training behind them. Their children are children, with the inherent lack of reasoning and restraint that comes with natural child curiosity. If Steve and his wife want to risk their lives on a daily basis, fabulous. But how about teaching the kids to cherish crocs from a nice safe distance until they’re a bit bigger?
I can’t believe you could be this stupid to post this in a thread about him carrying his one month old child while feeding a croc.
I agree with the OP. He has every right in the world to subject himself to any danger he wishes. He should leave his son out of it.
I don’t care how well trained he is. It was a stupid thing to do.
By annoying them???
I was hoping he was annoying YOU.
I thought there would be universal condemnation of this dickhead’s actions. Imagine my surprise when I find there are people actually defending him! Well, even Michael Jackson has his defenders, so why should I be shocked?
I’ve always hated this guy. He makes his living fucking around with animals that just want to be left in peace. Fuck him, and his irresponsible wife.
I hope his media career is over. At the very least, I hope Animal Planet drops him.
With the world’s overpopulation problem, behaviour like this should be encouraged.
The guys a fucking tool and this was the most moronic thing on the list of moronic things the guy has ever done. I don’t care how much he knows about crocodiles, they’re unpredictable, children are unpredictable and life is unpredictable. To knowingly put your kid in that situation goes beyond negligence; it shows that he is unsuitable to be a parent. I hope Queensland takes his kids away. That he was even using his one month old kid for his circus act (which, let’s be honest, is not about caring for animals, but is about him making shitloads) shows him to be an unscrupulous whore.
If you want to put yourself in danger, that’s one thing. But to hold a month old child in one hand and croc food in the other is extremely dangerous. After eating the chicken, the croc might want seconds.
I can’t seem to recall when Roy Horn exposed a baby to possible danger from a tiger. Could someone provide a cite?
Can you evaluate the relative risks of feeding a crocodile with an infant vs., say, driving with an infant? That is, are you a sufficent expert on crocodile behavior to predict the risk of it lunging accurately? 'Cause he kind of is.
Can we get a cite that this was irresponsible behavior?
I can’t belive that you’d require a cite to show that it’s not a good idea to put kids near crocodiles as a money-making stunt, but, this will start us off:
From here - "Three years ago, a worker from Australia Zoo was admitted to hospital after being mauled by a crocodile.
The zoo was fined $300 for not reporting the incident to Workplace Health and Safety."
If this can happen to a (presumably trained) adult who works amongst dangerous animals every day as part of their job, then surely it is not outside the realm of possibility that something similar may happen to a small child who has never encountered a crocodile before in his life?
and think, because the skull wouldn’t have fused yet, no hard nut to crack to get at the juicy brain… yum:rolleyes: