(no subject)

[figment]

One of the professors at AU has an article about Steve Irwin's death. Some of you (like jmanna) might enjoy it. I think he has a good point.

Comments

[433.livejournal.com]

Wildboyz is about power, violence and gratifying the desires of an audience at the expense of the animals' well-being.

Oh, my god. Whatever. Take it easy, dude.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That's a good essay.

B

[eternallion.livejournal.com]

I don't agree with comparing Steve Irwin and Timothy Treadwell with each other (not at that level) There were many serious mental issues that Timothy Treadwell dealt with. I think if you observe Steve Irwin's interactions with animals, he doesn't attempt to make them wild pets. In fact his whole schtick started because he was rescuing crocs from death, because they were near residential areas. His death and that of Timothy Treadwell were also incomparable. Timothy Treadwell actually believed he could communicate and thus be safe from the Grizzly, where Steve Irwin simply put himself in situations where there was usually a safe exit strategy.

[whitefox77.livejournal.com]

I find the over all meaning of the essay to be pretty good. I've often felt that any wild life show that shows humans and wild animals interacting is setting a bad example, and is doomed to have a negative impact on all wild animals. However, I don't like the comparison of Timothy Treadwell and Steve Irwin.

Okay, Timothy was a very nice person who was very naive. He honestly believed that so long as he was nice to the bears, the bears would be nice to him. No dice. No one that knew him was all that surprised at what happened to him. In the end I have little to no respect or pity for Timothy. His theories on bear behavior were proven false (by his own death). His attempt to engender a desire to protect bears by the general public through education resulted in the needless killing of several bears. Put bluntly, the bears (and Timothy himself) would have been better of if he'd been passionate about butterflies instead.

But I would also like to point out that NO ONE would have been more outraged at the bears being punished for what happened than him (at least before they ate him he would have felt that way, his opinion of bears might have changed in that last few minutes).

Steve Irwin on the other hand knew dam well that he was working with very dangerous wild animals. He took precautions, but he also knew he was taking real and serious risks. Eventually statistics caught up with Steve.

In my mind the difference between the two is that Timothy Treadwell probably didn't believe he'd get eaten by bears until one was chewing on him. Where Steve Irwin almost certainly understood that sooner or later one of the animals he worked with would get a lucky shot in. That difference is why Timothy died in one of his first attempts at filming bears in their natural habitat, where as Steve was filming wild animals for years.