Well I am not domesticated and I am not even an animal.

__________________
Half of a set :halo:

Regardless of what made the tiger attack...it did

I guarantee Roy did not go on that stage expecting to have a seizure or for the tiger to do what it did...

Circumstances beyond his control were at work.....the tiger is a wild animal no matter how many times it has 'perfomed' and will react accordingly

Same as the croc at Steves zoo....it maybe more managable than a true wild croc...but it still has 'wild' in it and as such an unpredictable result can occur

All it takes is something beyond his control to happen...and his 1 month old son could have been seriously injured or dead

Many a handler has been caught unawares by the animals in his/her care

__________________

A pet dog can turn on you at anytime as well. You just never know.

__________________
Half of a set :halo:

Yep!

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

But a dog can't swallow your child in one bite either.

CROCODILE TEARS




Steve Irwin may have bitten off more than he can chew by taking his infant son inside a crocodile enclosure. But as Anthony Hoy discovers, it's not just the issue of his son's safety that has turned the Crocodile Hunter into the hunted.

Crocodiles seem to inspire more awe and fascination in us than most creatures. Combine their cold, reptilian features and their ancient link with a world before the first human footprint appeared (not to mention an occasional preference for human flesh) and you have a creature that Hollywood was always going to embrace. Others came before him but none has ridden on the crocodile's back to greater fame or fortune than Steve Irwin.

The self-styled "Crocodile Hunter" has created an entertainment juggernaut centred around his ability to get up close and personal with one of the most lethal animals on Earth. Irwin has always argued that for those – like him – who understand these animals, their behaviour is, to a great degree, predictable. It is the unpredictable that seems to have ambushed him.

When a worldwide outcry accompanied the release of TV footagea showing Irwin holding his infant son in one arm while feeding a chicken carcass to a 4m saltwater croc called Murray with the other, he brazened: "I was in complete control of the crocodile."

The images caused enough of a stink in Australia but in the United States, where his caricatured Ocker image has generated an enormous following, the reaction was dire. His parental abilities were immediately compared with those of Michael Jackson (who once dangled his infant son over the balcony of a Berlin hotel), while The New York Daily News carried a front-page photo of Irwin accompanied by the headline: "Steve Irwin – Australian for stupid."

Yet the furore has obscured what many seasoned croc hunters and handlers feel is the real issue. Crocodiles and alligators are never predictable, they argue, and the real danger of the Irwin approach is that it just encourages imitators. There is ample evidence of the unpredictable. In 1994, Graham Freeman, an experienced Queensland croc handler, died after a crocodile turned on him and crushed his skull. More recently, and within the confines of Irwin's own Australia Zoo at Beerwah on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, a crocodile with the somewhat quaint name of Graham – notorious for having bitten Irwin in 1992 – attacked zoo manager Wes Mannion in 2001. Mannion, who was hospitalised for 12 days, needed 150 stitches and staples inserted into his thigh.


After having been turned on by a croc while he was using a technique that most in the industry believed safe, Broome crocodile farmer Malcolm Douglas is unequivocal: "They're unpredictable, simple as that."

As for the imitators, the members of Florida's Conservation Commission have a vivid reminder of the perils of that approach. Last May, an alligator strayed onto the verge of a public road in Polk County and, even though a licensed trapper was only minutes away, an onlooker took it upon himself to deal with the danger. He was lucky; his injuries could have been a lot worse than the large flap of skin that was left hanging from his left arm.

The imitation phenomenon has become such a problem, says one veteran croc handler, that there is now a concerted push among elements of the American legal profession to organise a class action on behalf of Irwin fans who have been bitten by snakes, alligators and other dangerous animals. This is in spite of the fact that Irwin's programs carry warnings not to imitate his conduct.

Says crocodile hunter John Lever, the Queenslander dispatched to Hong Kong in November to catch a rogue croc: "There is a fair amount of ill-feeling among the US alligator research fraternity towards Irwin over his animal containment practices, and the impact of his actions on the young and the easily impressionable. The same thing is happening in Australia. A child of one of my own crocodile park staffers was bitten by a snake, while trying to 'do a Steve'."

Irwin may have powerful supporters – Queensland Premier Peter Beattie's government nominated him for Australian of the Year, while PM John Howard once described him as "one of Australia's great conservation icons" – but, as far as the wildlife and conservation fraternity is concerned, opinion is polarised.

Lever, who runs the Koorana Crocodile Farm near Rockhampton, and other Queensland Wildlife Parks Association members have a code of practice that states: "Over-dramatisation and sensationalism of crocodile behaviour has a negative impact on community perceptions of crocodiles and is not to be undertaken. Park visitors should not be presented with examples of inappropriate behaviour that may be copied by some people."

So what does Irwin think? Inquiries by The Bulletin to his Beerwah zoo complex – which began life more modestly as the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park when it was run by Irwin's parents Bob and Lyn – were directed to The Best Picture Show Company, producers of The Crocodile Hunter TV series. Irwin, reportedly, had beaten a retreat to his central Queensland property near St George.

The company's principal, Irwin's friend and TV director John Stainton, says Irwin is not fielding any unsolicited media queries. "It has been an absolute tragedy, a media beat-up," Stainton says. "Unfortunately, it came at a time that was very light-on for news. It has been a feeding frenzy, absolutely irresponsible."

Stainton dismisses claims that Irwin's antics are responsible for injuries to fans or imitators. "There are a million people into alligators in Florida," he says. "They've been jumping on animals for centuries, long before we came [on the scene]."

While Stainton says he is not aware of any injuries to fans or imitators in Australia, "these things happen. We can't stop that, just as we can't stop road accidents. We can't be big brother to the world. TV generally is right out there. MTV's Wild Boys walk through crocodile-infested swamps on stilts. They wanted to do it at Steve's park, and we wouldn't let them. We constantly include messages saying: 'Do not try to do this at home.' "

There's a lot at stake for both men but for Irwin, who was given a python for his sixth birthday and was catching crocodiles under his father's supervision by the age of nine, it has been a particularly heady journey. By the time he'd reached adulthood, Irwin was catching rogue crocs for a living under contract to the state government. Then his father suggested he take a video camera along and things were destined never to be the same.

When Stainton – who happened to be shooting an ad at Australia Zoo one day during the early 1990s – saw some of Irwin's footage, he realised he had a unique TV animal on his hands. US cable operator Discovery Channel bought the show in 1996 and it rapidly brought Irwin a level of popularity well beyond his wildest dreams.

In 2002, when Irwin was the most noteworthy newcomer on BRW's list of highest-earning Australian entertainers, Irwin and Stainton were listed as having estimated gross earnings of $16.3m for the year, based on the show being screened in 130 countries and on Irwin's advertising endorsements.

No wonder Irwin was quick to apologise to the president of Discovery Network, which through its Animal Planet subsidiary carries Irwin's programs to 200 million subscribers. So far the network is standing by their man, as is car manufacturer Toyota, for whom Irwin endorses four-wheel-drive vehicles. When you consider the $175,000 Irwin was paid for one day's filming for the federal government's "Quarantine Matters" ad campaign, it's clear that this income stream is crucial not just to Irwin and Stainton but also to the 200-plus employees of Australia Zoo.

Such a successful business operation needs to watch more than just the crocs. Accordingly, The Best Picture Show Company, which owns "The Crocodile Hunter" name, foreshadowed legal action against northern Australia identity "Crocodile Mick" Pitman, in an attempt to prevent Pitman's long-term use of the description "crocodile hunter".

But Pitman, who trained under the late, renowned Weipa croc hunter "German Jack" in the early 1970s, isn't budging, claiming his use of the description predates any claim to copyright or trademark and that because the name is technically a generic term in common use, it is therefore not able to be registered.

While confirming his company's approaches to "Crocodile Mick" Pitman, Stainton claimed it was "a very friendly, standard letter" and a process the company has to go through up to 200 times a year with various operations. "I wouldn't know whether or not 'crocodile hunter' is a generic term," Stainton says. "We are not interested in pursuing the matter."

But the real domestic heat in the Crocodile Hunter's camp emanates from Irwin's long-running philosophical brawl on conservation issues with the advocates of sustainable crocodile farm production. "I believe sustainable use is the greatest propaganda in wildlife conservation at the moment," Irwin said in a recent interview.

Irwin has used his web site to mount what he calls his so-called "Millennium Resolution" attack on crocodile farming and other forms of sustainable animal management programs. He claims credible and powerful players are "using the camouflage of science to make money out of animals. So, whenever they're killing our animals and calling it sustainable use, I'll fight it."

Noted crocodile researcher and Darwin crocodile park operator Dr Grahame Webb is among those described by Irwin as being the "Hitlers of wildlife" in Irwin's "Millennium Resolution". "I find Irwin's attacks offensive, and quite off the rails," Webb says.

Webb, who pioneered crocodile husbandry practices used by Irwin and other park operators, is vice-chairman of the Switzerland-based World Conservation Union, which operates under the auspices of the United Nations. He also heads the WCU's Crocodile Specialist Management Group.

"Australia's sustainable crocodile farming program during the last 20 years has certainly been a success, with the wild population increasing at the same time as thousands of eggs and a small number of wild animals are harvested by permit each year throughout northern Australia," Webb says.

"Irwin appears to be totally opposed to anyone who uses crocodiles in any way other than the way in which he uses them. The linkage between conservation and sustainable use is to find a way to draw upon wild populations of animals to generate the commercial incentives needed to look after and conserve these animals. But it can't work in the real world with just one value system – Steve Irwin's – because people get eaten when the wild crocodile population is uncontrolled. And that upsets some people.

"Irwin doesn't seem to understand that conservation is the sum total of actions taken to preserve and maintain items to which we attribute a positive value. Most agricultural production is about conflicting values, and adopting different value systems to suit different people."

For Stainton, the continuation of the sustainability versus conservation debate is a case of people "trying to dredge up everything they can find". While he says he is not aware if Irwin's views on the issue have been tempered in recent times, "people do change". However, as the consequences of Irwin's TV footage continue to reverberate among animal handling professionals and the general public alike, only time will tell if Irwin is prepared to change what up until now has been a lucrative formula.

__________________
Half of a set :halo:

You realise Steve Irwin's done it all before.

Attached Images

si1.jpg (83.9 KB, 138 views)

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Prior 2

Attached Images

si2.jpg (74.6 KB, 125 views)

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Prior 3

Attached Images

si3.jpg (87.4 KB, 115 views)

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Prior4

Attached Images

si4.jpg (69.9 KB, 124 views)

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

Lastly but not leastly.

Attached Images

si5.jpg (52.6 KB, 116 views)

__________________
Calm, quiet, smooth, devastating

MJ makes Steve look down right tasty

__________________

The practice of putting women on pedestals began to die out when it was discovered that they could give orders better from there.~ Betty Grable

If I wanted your opinion, I'd remove the duct tape and ask you for it.~ Me
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
One man's dream is another man's nightmare~~~~> §¤ Lilith ¤§
~>My Scribbles<~
==>Gone Shopping<== ~Just a Quickie~ *~A Celebration Vacation~* ~Surprises~ Sleeping With the Window Open
What Did You Do Today? Self Defense Class ~Short Sweet Snippets~ § Summer Spin § Story Challenge Submission Pajamas