Anyone else see this?
http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com...t.e010421a.jpg
JAMIE TARABAY
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Despite crys of outrage from child welfare groups, crocodile hunter Steve Irwin will not face charges for a stunt in which he fed a large crocodile with one arm while cradling his infant son in the other.
Canadian Press Photo
"There won't be any charges brought against him," Terry Mackenroth, the state's acting premier, said Saturday. "The department of children's services have done what they needed to do, to contact the family and to talk to them about it."
"They've (the Irwin family) assured them that it won't happen again and I am sure that if it does they will be back in touch with them," he said.
The incident at Irwin's popular reptile park in Beerwah, north of Brisbane, was captured on Australian television, and viewers later jammed phone lines to express their outrage.
"I think he's a bloody idiot, he's addicted to the attention," crocodile farm owner Keith Cook told the Courier-Mail newspaper.
At a news conference Saturday, Irwin conceded he had been shaken by the controversy involving his son Robert.
"If I could have my time again I would probably do things a little differently," he said. "But I would be considered a bad parent if I did not teach my children crocodile savvy because they live here. They live in crocodile territory . . . so they have to be croc savvy."
He also claimed the danger posed by the crocodile was exaggerated.
"It's all about perceived danger; I was in complete control," said Irwin, flanked by his father, his wife and his five-year-old daughter, Bindi.
"People say, 'Well, what if you had fallen?' But for that to take place a meteorite would have had to come out of the sky and hit Australia at 6.6 on the Richter scale like in Iran."
Irwin has gained worldwide fame for his Crocodile Hunter show on the Animal Planet network, in which he chats excitedly about exotic and dangerous creatures - sometimes from extremely close proximity to the beasts. Animal Planet's Web site features several Close Call Clips that show Irwin getting bitten or merrily escaping the jaws of hungry reptiles.
Friday's footage on Australian TV showed Irwin feeding a dead chicken to a three-metre crocodile named Murray while he held Robert in the other hand. Murray snapped up the meat.
"Good boy, Bob," Irwin said, according to the tabloid Herald Sun. He then balanced the boy on the ground after the crocodile had retreated to the water.
Irwin's American wife, Terri, had handed the baby over to Irwin in the enclosure and giggled at the spectacle.
"It was a wonderful sensory experience for him (the baby); he dug it," she said.
Discuss.:eek:
