We heard about her column here, Sounds like shes just trying to garner herself more publicity.
If she had even an ounce of dignity she would pull her head in and
let his family grieve in peace.
I agree, I feel its unfair to put the boot into the guy before he's in the ground as they say. Germaine Greer has always thrived on being controversial, usually mixed with a large degree of vitriotic jealousy. However I have to partially agree with her about the methods he used. While studying for my degree we were constantly reminded to limit our impact on wildlife, which includes a minimal amount of handling.
However, from an animals point of view I'd prefer a boof head shouting in my ear for 30 seconds to some scientist jabbing me with needles, piercing my ear with an ear tag and strapping a heavy radio collar on my neck for twelve months or so.
In addition, Irwin's method of hands on wrangling was meant to limit injury to animals when capturing them for public education etc. For example, the traditional method of capturing a snake up untill Irwin came along was to jab a metal stick onto the back of its neck then pick it up. Which invariably made said snake VERY angry, and you haven't really seen anger until you've seen a pissed off Taipan.
With crocodiles, the traditional method was to spot-light them at night from a dingy and jab them with a small harpoon with a rope attached, sort of Moby Dick style. Despite their rough exterior, crocodiles are rather vulnerable to infection, as are most reptiles. Indeed, a rusty harpoon in the neck or back doesn't do anyone any favours.
Combat et al. Yes, the guy did make a large amount of money out of exhibiting animals, usually with over enthusiatic handling. However he also put most of that money back into protecting them. He could have built a number of large houses and bought a fleet of expensive sports cars etc to drive around in. And frankly few people blame celebrities when they do those things.
However the fact is that Irwin ploughed the bulk of the money he made back into protecting animals and conserving habitats. He bought up large areas of land in a number of countries to save threatened species and this has only recently been made public. He lived on a rather modest bungalow in the zoo compound and had recently commenced construction of the largest animal hospital in the world.
So imho his detractors (which has included me on occassion) should cut the guy a bit of slack, or at least wait until he's buried, and his family and friends have had some period of mourning.
