Crocodile hunter escapes charges(child endangerment)
 

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/2004/WORLD/asia...ory.1.feed.jpg
linky


:mad: What a fucking dick.

Agreed. I am Australian and I hate him. I can't fathom why Americans love him so goddamn much. He is retarded.

He is a goofball .
He showed a lack of judgement but I'm sure everyone on the Tfp
has done something equally stupid.
I can't imagine him doing any harm to Bindi or Robert.
Forgive him and move on.

When I first read this article on CNN, it just stated that he did the stunt, without remarking on the danger, and I almost posted it to TFP - asking why it was okay that he would do this to his baby yet it was reprehensible for Michael Jackson to dangle his baby out the window. I'm glad to see I didn't have to ask that question.

It looked like a really clear-cut case of "child endangerment" to me and the girls...

It looked like he was riding high on his career, what with his movie and all. Unfortunately for him, this little stunt was probably a career ending move. He should have just left good enough alone.

Yeha it was fucking stupid, even moreso him saying that he would be a bad father if his children weren't crocodile savvy and he might be inclined to do it in the future. Maybe when the child is more than a few months old and can fully sense fear.

That said, he did save a guys life a few months back.

He's good and bad though. Cause on one hand it gives Australia some good tourism and exposure, but also, people may think all Australians are like him. Sooo...... :lol:

This is a man who knows more about about handling crocodiles than anyone else on the planet. He had the croc out of the water where it's range of motion is significantly limited. If it had been ANYONE ELSE besides him, I'd agree that they deserved a kick in the jimmy. However, Irwin's case is completely different, and I'll give him a pass.

My guess is that most people expose their children to more danger when they strap them into a car seat (or not) and take them for a ride in their automobile. Yet, would we be up in arms if Michael Schumacher took his child for a hotlap in the Ferrari? Would we all be wetting our pants over it (sorry, talk radio has reduced my vocabulary to provocations)? My guess is "no."

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

Irwin would be wise to remember how irresponsible his stunts <b>appear</b> to people who don't have his rarified abilities, and leave his child out of his show next time.

the kid was not in danger. crucify someone else.

like madp said... it looks ludicrous and horrorifying but how a sittuation looks through the eyes of layman who do now understand can be quite different than the truth.

he's been with crocs his whole life. got his first at age 9. he knows them.

think of this...... crocs are alien to most of us. we never work with them, we see urban legend after urban legend be turned into 'news' and what not.

I do think he used some very stupid judgement. dude..... out with the kid. but anyway... the kid was and is fine.

spoken like a scholar... oh, wait...

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=40404

Like I said there, Steve Irwin has been around crocs and gators his entire life, and knows their demeanor and the "safety zone" better than any of the self righteous know-it-alls who are crucifying him right now. I am about as certain as I can be that his baby was in no "life threatening" danger. I'm definitely no big fan of Steve Irwin, but comparing this to Jackson's baby dangling incident is absolutely ridiculous.

The only real mistake Irwin made was perform this in front of the self righteous public and media, who have nothing better to do than condemn to make themselves feel better.

Actually, the worst part of the entire video clip was when he was pretending that the baby was walking away.

That baby is so young that it can barely hold it's head up. That just looked mean.

Ditto.

Not my kid, what the fuck do I care? Ever read the darwin awards...?

EDIT: Just read the second half of the posts, I also agree that the kid was probably in no danger... But if he was, refer to my above staement.

I can't believe people don't see the stupidity in what he did. If that Croc lunged at him and he tripped backwards and accidently fed his child to that beast for lunch would he still be defended?

Sure he knows Crocs well and is sure of himself, but what purpose did it serve to endanger his child at all? Just to stoke his ego.

I have always found him entertaining but think he must now be considered a jerk.

Sorry, but I think it was a stupid stunt and he ought to be castrated for being such an idiot. And from the articles I read about it, his wife is just as much to blame, and just as stupid. I have lost a lot of respect for " Steve Irwin ".

I'm American and I can't stand him. What he did was absolutely ludicrous.

Blimey! Watch me while I feed an animal with twice my size and strength while holding my infant son in one hand. She's a beaut! What's that sound? Oh bloody hell! It's the sound of my career taking a nosedive because of my stupidity.

I'm surprized most of you don't see any problems with the fact that you are attacking someone who knows more about crocodiles and their safety zones than you, for putting his OWN child in what YOU perceive as danger, but he doesn't. There are several problems here:

1)The prosecutors (or should I say persecutors) act as if they know more about what was happening in that croc pen than Mr.Irwin does, which is not necessarily true.

2)Most of you put your child into equal or greater danger on a daily basis via the presence of small household objects to choke on, junk food to clog their arteries, and car trips that put your child's life in the hands of YOUR driving skills! I guess I better accuse you all of possibly being bad drivers, just like Irwin here is being accused of possibly being a bad crocodile handler.

3)Dangling a baby out of the window is different from taking a baby on a risky job with a professional on hand. Those childrens' groups seem to lack the common sense to see a difference.

Bah.

PS: I'm an American citizen, and I do not perceive Australians to be anything like Steve Irwin. I think he's pretty funny, and makes his shows interesting to watch. As for the rest of the Aussie population, everyone knows they get around in Kangaroo pouches (or outrageously tricked-out cars, with spikes and guns), and wear mostly leather and oversize boots. :D

Wow .. I can't believe I haven't seen this. Michael Jackson hangs his kid out a window and gets major publicity. How much publicity has this gotten? I myself personaly think a situation like this one is far more dangerous than Michael Jacksons stunt, but on either behalf they are both a couple of idiots.

Bad thing about these stunts and the media along with the publicity it gets is that it is going to wind up having an impact on the laws and people are going to start looking for situations people maybe doing in everyday life that could endanger a child that we may not think of it as a situation involving child endangerment, Just sitting here thinking about things I have seen people do and things I have done I could name alot of diffrent situations. Just walking out on an ice covered sidewalk carrying a child could be looked at as child endangerment. If you slip and fall that child is going down with you. How far will this go I have to wonder what kind of am impact is this kind of publicity going to have on us when it comes to changes in the law.

Just another publicity stunt. The prosecutor won't take it any further. Animal channel has chastized him. Case closed.

I'm in agreeance with Nefir on this one..

From what I can see in that picture it looks like he'd have to toss that piece of meat to the croc anyways.. crocs can only lunge from when they're in the water as it's their huge tails that propel them.

The only part that I thought that made him look like a fool was when he was making his bub walk away.. idiot! lol.. ahh wells

I'm American and I don't get it either.

I think that it's stupid for people to compare this to the Jackson thing. The baby wasn't in danger any more than he was, and that's not a lot. He's a trained professional with god-knows-how-many years of experience under his belt. He knew what he was doing and he knew that his baby wouldn't have been in danger otherwise he wouldn't have done it. That's why it's idiotic to compare it to the Jackson thing. He's a professional Croc handler. Jackson is NOT a professional baby-dangler. Jackson DID NOT know what he was doing and therefore WAS endangering the child. Irwin DID know and therefore he WASN't. End of story.

I can't fault the guy. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit the guy is an expert on handling crocodiles and if you had to trust anybody in that situation it has to be Steve Irwin.

I'm not an expert and neither or any of you (if I'm wrong please PM with your credentials and I'll apologize :) ) so if Steve Irwin the expert tells me that there was little or no danger then I believe him.

The only thing Mr. Irwin did wrong was to do it in front of the media that couldn't wait to put it on the big screen and a public that didn't hesitate an instant to pass judgment.

Mr Irwin made a bad Judgement call. Would I do that," No" even if I was a expert.

IMO, he is an expert in what he does, and i think in this case the child was perfectly safe. BUT yes there is a small chance that somthing could happen to hurt the child, it could happen, but prolly wont.. same could be dsaid about putting your baby in a carsear and going to the grocery store, you and the child are safe, but there is a slight chance of a semi hitting you and totaling the car...
what im trying to say is that i thinkin that situation, the child was in no more danger than he is any alot of other situations

Expert or not, there's no reason for his child to be put in that situation. It would be different if he were trying to teach an older child something, but that's not the case here. It was definitely a stunt.
Regarding the baby seat analogy, it doesn't apply. When I put my child in a baby seat, it is to protect her from danger. I drive even more cautiously than usual when my daughter is in the car. I don't take her out in the car on icy snowy streets just for the thrill of it.

No... You dont drive when its icy, you are careful... But that doesnt make the possibility of a semi barreling through your car dissapear.

Would I do that with my kid even if I was a profesional? Probably not.

Like everyone else said, there are soooo many things that people do to put their child in danger, without even knowing it, that its ridiculous to criticize him.

At least he fully realized the dangers...

Odd. That's all I know to say. Odd.
Why does he like the crocodiles in the first place?
I just don't get that guy

It has been a media circus here since he did that. He got the support of the premier of Queensland (croc country mate!) today. I don't think it was a big deal, there were that many people there to help out if things got outta hand, which was unlikely.

Was it endangerment? Probably. Does he know what he is doing? Absolutely.

I still don't know how I feel about this one. I do think he showed a pretty bad lack of judgement, but I don't really hold it against him given his experience level.

He got everyones attention didnt he?

With what he knows I think his kids was as safe as mine are when I driving to the store

The difference in the driving and everyday activity analogy, is that there is a need to drive your child in a car and do the other mundane things which could endanger a child. There was no need for that child to be in that situation, period, however slight the Croc. expert claims the danger was. I don't believe for a minute there was NO danger.

My take on this is no matter how much you know about an animal its behavior can still be very unpredictable.

He cannot claim to read the crocs mind as well.

He did endanger his baby. I am sure now he will think twice about doing something like this again.

Steve Irwin used *horrible* judgment here, but I'm with Z on this one. I don't think he'd ever recklessly put his own child in serious danger, he knows what crocs can and can't do, is familiar with the animal and wouldn't do anything *too* stupid, I don't think. :) It's not like he was letting the kid run around and play with the croc, after all!! But he's dumb for making a spectacle of it.