The Death of Steve Irwin and Its Controversy

Arif Rohman

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Charles Sturt University

Cite:

Rohman, Arif. (2014). The Death of Steve Irwin and Its Controversy. Kompasiana, 24 November 2014.

Steve Irwin occupied a special place in the Australian psyche which was shown by the extraordinary reaction to his death. Those who admired Irwin as a hero called him a wildlife warrior because of his skills and bravery in taking care of many animals, especially crocodiles. He also made a good impression as a celebrity and conservationist with his masculinity, enthusiasm and spirit to promote the wild animals’ conservation. Like any romantic story, Irwin died as a hero doing what ‘he loved and fought for’ (Himes, 2006). On the contrary, there are other who claimed that Steve Irwin went to far by invading the animal realm. This essay will discuss both the positive and negative responses to the Steve Irwin’s death, and try to identify the reasons behind this debate.

In her article, Greer (2006) stated that Irwin’s death was basically the revenge of the animal kingdom. She argued that animals also need space to live in their natural habitat, but Irwin broke and ignored this conservation ethic and created a new genre of animal documentary film for entertainment purposes which was ‘nature nasty’. On the subject of conservation, it is a consensus that protection of the habitat of wild creatures is an essential part of this process. Greer was more disappointed in Irwin when in 2004 he fed a crocodile with a dead chicken in one hand and his baby in the other hand. Although a disaster did not happen, Greer said that using a baby as part of the show was dangerous and was a silly thing and she called it child abuse....

For Full Text Pdf Download Here