Satch, Irwin put just about all of his money into his zoo, buying huge areas of land and restoring them to their natural condition and rescuing animals that were in trouble. He did a huge amount of conservation work that he did not really make a big deal about.

Yeah he caught animals for the cammera and he probably scared them when he did it but to say that he constantly harmed them I think is going a bit too far. I think the man had more empathy for animals than 99% of people. He went with the philosophy that every animal that he caught for the cammera made someone, somewhere aware about their plight and so a bit of a ruffle up was worth it.

I don't think he boxed the stingray in and he wasn't trying to catch it. It was a freak accident. The only mistake he made was that he pulled the barb out himself. I have seen indepth interviews with the producer of the show he was making who was there and it doesn't seem that he was in the middle of one of his "chase and catch the animal" routines.

and (e) is right the cammera did play tricks with the baby thing, he was quite a distance away from the croc. The only thing he did wrong there was not support the baby's head. I hardly think that is reason to bag the man.

BTW it wasn't the Australian Government that offered the state funeral, it was the Queensland government. They probably did it as Steve was probably the most well known Australian in the world and that it would give the many people who were upset about what happened to say farewell.

I personally was sad for his familiy but no more so than when I hear of any person who dies at a young age and who leave a family behind. The whole morning the deaths of celebraties is a bit strange for me.

Thats horrible!

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
  - John Muir

I'm not much for religion, but thats a pretty cool quote.

The killing of stingrays happened in a couple of isolated incidents. The media beat that one up a bit to.

But yeah there are dickheads around thats for sure

You can preceive God in this quote anyway you wish. I'm sure Muir was not a religious man.

"Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit - the cosmos? The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge." -Muir

I didn't say he wasn't a Christian, I said he probably wasn't religious. I believe most who were/are similar minded as Muir were/are not religious men.