(This is so fricking sad that I don't know what to say. Steve Irwin was only 44 years old and now he's gone. Of all the dangerous crocodiles, snakes and other wild animals that he closely encountered, I bet never in his wildest dreams did he think it would be a stingray that would kill him. The odds of this happening have to be extremely long, I would think. For most people, getting stung by one of these things will make you very sick, but will rarely kill you. Just like the guy in Vegas who almost got killed by that tiger, the message here is that wild animals are very, very dangerous. What I loved about Steve (aka "The Crocodile Hunter") is that he was also a conservationist and environmentalist. He wasn't just messing with animals to get on TV or in the movies -- it was his life and his passion. I hate it when people say "If he was going to die, this is the way he would have wanted to go." That's total bulls--t! Dying is dying and nobody wants to go at all. I'm sure Steve would have rather died in a way that would have allowed him the time to say goodbye to his wife and kids. How do folks know how he would have preferred to die? I hate that kind of thinking.)
Here's the story as it appeared on www.aol.com today, in a capsulated form:
SYDNEY, Australia - Fatally injured "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin pulled a stingray's serrated barb from his chest before he lost consciousness and died, his manager said on Tuesday as fans worldwide mourned the exuberant naturalist. Hundreds of fans placed flowers outside his Australia Zoo in Queensland state and wrote messages on khaki shirts, part of his trademark uniform, as Irwin's body was flown home after Monday's freak diving accident off Australia's northeast coast.
