i'm very upset about the croc hunter

He kind of reminded me of my redneck cousins. You know, the one whose last words were something like "Hey everybody! Watch me do this"

he was a nutter i keep thinking of that episode when he dances in front of this snake.. the snake spat poison onto his face, he was wearing goggles, but not the kind that can keep your eyes completely safe. why would anyone do that???

testosterone poisoning

are you joking?

What about all the animals he saved? Doesn't that count for something? Yes, he did pick up animals in the wild and disturb them, but then what did he do? He talked about them and what made them interesting. He educated a lot of people about creepy crawly critters. Yes, he was reckless around wild animals at times. He also rescued numerous animals that would have been killed or would have died otherwise. People keep saying his death is nature's way of getting revenge. I disagree. He died quickly doing something he loved. Not a bad way to go.

It's like anything else There's good ways and bad ways to go about doing something, and tail-yanking antisocial entertainment value doesn't justify the ends in my book. Kind of reminds me of a quote from Aldous Huxley: The nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end. I really don't think his behavior can be labeled as merely reckless. At least, not in the sense of "only" being a danger to himself and his baby. I think it's a shitty way of interacting with the world at large, and the rescue stuff is just good PR to mask the hypocracy. Any good that did come of it doesn't change the cost of the means, not only to the wildlife itself, but encouraging a view of other living things as antisocial entertainment.

anti-social? to handle a black Desert snake? by coddling it? And what hypocracy? he brought awareness to endangered species to our idiot nation.

He was doing conservation work long before the TV show. The popularity of his show allowed him to do more conservation and environmental work. And talk about media spin - when he was shown on NBC (I think...one of the big networks anyway) they kept promising that he would get hurt. He didn't plan to get hurt, it had happened when filming and the media hyped it up to get viewers. And it worked. To me, that falls more on the anti-social behavior of the viewers and the network than of his actions. It's not like he was throwing animals together to watch them fight to the death. That's far more anti-social and cruel to animals than picking them up and showing them to people. Cock fighting, running with the bulls, bull fights, circuses – all far worse than anything he did with animals. The kid incident freaked me out. He claims the kid was safe with him. He claims he knew that croc well enough to know how it moved. Maybe he did. I wouldn't chance anything like that with a wild animal, but I'm no expert in animal behavior. His intent was to let people know that crocs weren't as bad as people think. I don't think he convinced anyone of that with that demonstration.

I like the man. I like his work. I liked his passion.

The part we don't get here in the states... ...is the number of times the Department of Conservation and Land Management in Western Australia has cited him and refused him wildlife permits and filming permits because of how he (mis)handles animals, as well as how just so coincidentally, the number of snakebites and other encounters with wildlife which caused injury to people in Oz went up drastiy after he came onto the scene. Let's not kid ourselves here, a frequent modus operandi for him was to taunt and bully animals to the point of aggression. How is this a good thing to add to the world? I would agree it's shitty for whichever network it was to tout him getting injured as a selling point. But I'm not sure how this is relevant to the discussion at hand. I really hate this kind of low bar stuff, where because another much worse form of whatever is being discussed exists, that somehow makes the less worse form ok, rather than all of it being something which informs the fabric of society. It's why people get away with so much crap in the first place. Because they can always point to someone else who's doing something worse than they are.

point taken Thank you, I really didnt know the behind the scene stuff that was going on.

There's also a certain cultural issue too IMO, you're not going to find very many Australians who respect him either, because of the way he played up and traded on ugly Australian stereotypes for lotsa publicity and cash. I actually have a theory about this with regard to his popularity in the US: we're a culture all about The Big One, and Living On The Edge. Or at least dreaming about it while slaving away at whatever makes the money. Man is king of his domain and ruler over nature and all that. Sure, the little people should respect the animals, but Steve's got The Big One so don't try this at home, kids. At least, not without the help of some beers, as many have mpted to their detriment. I "get" the life passion thing. I really do, why else would I work in a profession often compared to Dante's Inferno? But would people think better of what I was doing if I bullied the cows or ducks or whatever first before serving them up in order to bring fame and publicity to it? There's plenty of ways to get an edge in life without resorting to displacing the cost on others.

interesting short article from petfo (where disagreeing apparently gets you -x and ed a cunt, repeatedly). post 'alternate view' in this thread