As with so many other things, I am of two minds on Steve Irwin.
1. He did some very good things in advancing the causes of conservation and environmentalism. He did some wonderful things toward getting people interested in animals, many of which they would never see, save on the television. His enthusiasm for these matters was infectious and, one hopes, someone will come along to continue this work.
2. At the same time, I was very uncomfortable with the way he often handled the animals, poking them with sticks and generally disturbing the poor critters.
How odd it is that I would be sensitive to the issues of abusing (or even offending) an animal, while I was utterly oblivious to the abuse aspects of a heavily tattooed infant.
Back when I was in the Navy, I had the dubious privilege of spending some time at Treasure Island, San Francisco, awaiting orders to wherever. I frequently went walking at night to look at the skyline, and along my route people would go fishing. One night, someone caught a stingray. Someone else indicated that he wanted it - apparently the Filipinos eat the wings as steaks and they are delicacies. Naturally, curiosity took hold of me. I watched as he cut into the ray and the wings were as much as three inches thick, all muscle. The stinger has serrations and barbs. I have no doubt that a stingray can easily penetrate a human chest.
I do not think they are naturally aggressive. Irwin either stepped on it or poked it with a stick and upset the critter.
And, at the same time, this death has that almost poetic touch of irony, as when Jim Fixx and Euell Gibbons died from a heart attacks.
It is my understanding that he was being filmed as this incident occurred. Doubtless this footage will soon circulate through the Internet underground.
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