Crikey!!!
Sep 6 2006
RIP Steve Irwin, it was fun while it lasted.
Sure, Steve made a life out of risking death at any moment by attempting to handle and piss off every deadly animal known to man. However, to get knocked down in your prime by the lowly stingray is a tough blow. I’d understand if it was a Corvette Stingray cruising along at 70 mph, but alas, that’s not what happened here. Nope, he was cut down by the same animal that appears in the ‘petting pools’ of every marine theme park in the world.
Apparently the Crocodile Hunter was hit with a blow to the chest from the barb of a stingray during the filming of a new movie. He’s said to have died on the flight back to a hospital for treatment from cardiac arrest (aka, a palm-sized hole in his heart). Knowing how safe he was at all times, even when looking like a madman, it just appears his luck, which he stretched to the limit, finally ran out. Granted most of his interaction with killer animals was on land, so he was able to be quick and nimble in trying to avoid death. This time though, he was clearly in the domain of the stingray, and was at a huge disadvantage.
Sad to see it happen. Sure, we all had watched enough of his shows to all start the occasional cheer of “take his arm off’, and the like. Many of us probably do this during any animal show were the host gets up close and personal with the animals. Not that we mean it, but it makes viewing a little more fun. Imagine if Marlon Perkins had been killed by a zebra in “Wild Kingdom”, or Joan Embry was bludgeoned to death by a monkey during a Carson taping. Deep down inside though you realize that they’re all pros who seem to be above freak accidents with animals. Of course for every Irwin, Perkins and Embry, there are also nut jobs like Timothy Treadwell. That’s the wacko who decided to live in the wild with bears whom he though were his friends. His efforts to teach the world about the compassion and love shown by bears backfired when nature ran it’s course and Tim was gobbled up by his bestest buddy right in front of an on-looking camera crew during the filming of the documentary “Grizzly Man”. A situation that I’m sure the crew went into thinking “is this guy just looking to die?”. No matter how cute an cuddly bears are, I’ve been beaten badly enough by common house-cats to ever dream of going Grizzly Adams.
As for Steve Irwin though, he seemed to make it all look so easy, that sometimes you forget that it’s so easy for it to go so very badly. With that, here’s a little video tribute for you to watch and remember all the great things you loved about the Crocodile Hunter.
~Enjoy
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