Irwin death, animal world revenge: Greer
The animal world has taken revenge on self-deluded animal tormentor Steve Irwin, according to expatriate Australian academic and writer Germaine Greer.
Writing in the British press following Irwin's sudden death, Greer said she had "not much sympathy" for the naturalist if he was grappling with the stingray that killed him on the Great Barrier Reef.
"As a Melbourne boy, Irwin should have had a healthy respect for stingrays, which are actually commoner and bigger in southern waters than they are near Port Douglas," Greer said in The Guardian.
She described Irwin's behaviour as "bizarre", noting the famed incident when he held his baby son while feeding a crocodile during a show at his Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast.
"The whole spectacle was revolting," Greer said.
"The crocodile would rather have been anywhere else and the chicken had a grim life too, but that's entertainment at Australia Zoo."
She dismissed Irwin's explanation that he had the situation under control and could not have slipped or stumbled.
"That sort of self-delusion is what it takes to be a real Aussie larrikin," Greer said.
"What Irwin never seemed to understand was that animals need space.
"There was no habitat, no matter how fragile or finely balanced, that Irwin hesitated to barge into, trumpeting his wonder and amazement to the skies.
"There was not an animal he was not prepared to manhandle.
"Every creature he brandished at the camera was in distress.
"The animal world has finally taken its revenge on Irwin, but probably not before a whole generation of kids in shorts seven sizes too small has learned to shout in the ears of animals with hearing ten times more acute than theirs, determined to become millionaire animal-loving zoo-owners in their turn."
