Animal abuser Steve Irwin was not just cruel to animals, but he was also a police-protected criminal.
He got what he deserved when he unlawfully attacked an innoffensive Stingray in 2006 and it defended itself against his criminal abuse in a wildlife conservation zone and the ray managed to kill the attacker.
It is scandalous that Irwin's death has been blamed on the Stingray and as some kind of freak attack by the Stingray.
It is equally scandalous that many more Stingrays have been killed in revenge attacks since.
Steve Irwin's unlawful harassment of wildlife in the name of his TV career was one of his hallmarks. Copycats continue to unlawfully abuse and harass wildlife in order to make money and worse still his family peddle the great lie that Steve Irwin was actually of benefit to the wildife conservation cause.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The Irwin business model was based on getting preceived rivals in the wildlife space raided and shut down at gunpoint, acting as an informant for police in order to be protected from criminal charges and other nefarious practices.
The scandalous attempt by his family's business to rewrite history portraying Steve Irwin as some kind of wildlife conservation icon ranks with the attempts to rewrite history by Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1940's.
Steve Irwin's contribution to wildlife conservation was on the same level as Adolf Hitler's contribution to the welfare of Jews.
Numerous wildlife conservation organisations and private zoos were either shut down at gunpoint in raids instigated at Steve Irwin's behest, so as to give his businesses a monopoly in the wildlife space. Irwin prostituted himself as some kind of wildlife charity in what was another of his scams. successfully soliciting large donations in cash and/or kind totalling many millions of dollars from the Federal and State governments in Australia and Queensland, simultaneously engineering the effective starvation of rivals in the wildlife business and conservation space.
Through his continual on TV abuse and attacks of wildlife and the marketing of himself, Irwin made it socially acceptable to abuse animals for video and TV and numerous copycats have found themselves killed by snakes or other wildlife after abusing them the same way that Irwin did. The Irwin business also trolls social media and the internet including runing numerous accounts under assorted names to cross-post and portray the veneer that Steve Irwin was some kind of wildlife conservation icon, when he was not and also shutting down accounts and websites critical of him, or merely trying to set the record straight. These accounts regularly post on Facebook and elsewhere claims that Irwin was some kind of Aussie hero or icon, when he was in fact nothing more than a police protected criminal.
In August 2011, the Snakeman Raymond Hoser, Australia's foremost reptile expert and author of the so-called Bible "Endangered Animals of Australia" published in 1991, received a written legal threat from Teri Irwin, the wife of the late animal abuser Steve Irwin, and/or her subordinate, demanding removal of a webpage that merely pointed out potential breaches of occupational health and safety laws at the Irwin's family business, these being numerous near fatal snakebites involving employees at the Zoo.
One need not mention the numerous other unlawful acts of abuse at the Irwin business, including for example the occasions employees have been attacked by big cats when tormenting them while wearing a "Gopro" camera on their head.
Were any other private zoo in Australia to engage in such activity, they would have been quite properly shut down immediately.
Teri Irwin regularly directly or through subordinates, trolls the internet to remove material that points out a few home truths about her animal abusing husband.
Teri Irwin also instigated an illegal ISIS-like armed raid on Snakeman Raymond Hoser's family home and world-leading wildlife conservation business in 2011, which saw Hoser's two vulnerable young daughters arrested in their own home at gunpoint and then held for some hours in custody.
One must ask, what kind of Psycho woman would want to instigate an unlawful armed raid on a family including two harmless young girls? Subsequently, several courts of law, found the Irwin instigated raid of 2011 to have been highly illegal and an abuse of process and costs were awarded in favour of Hoser.
The cost to the Victorian taxpayer arising from Irwin's actions were estimated by government employees to have been in the order of many millions of dollars.
This is not including the direct losses to the Snakeman and his staff totalling many more millions of dollars and the irreparable setting back of wildlife conservation in Australia.
The Irwin business has also instigated dozens of illegal armed raids on other rivals as detailed by former NPWS Officer, Clive Bennett.
A world-leading Green Python breeding project at Herberton in Queensland, run by Bob Buckley was raided and shut down by Qld wildlife officers and the snakes handed to Steve Irwin's business. Many died shortly after and so when Buckley won his case in court, most stolen snakes were not returned. Steve Irwin even killed some of the same Green Pythons when abusing them during filming one of his many animal tormenting TV shows.
Wildlife educator, Bob Withey of New South Wales, also found himself at the wrong end of the Irwin business monster as he too was seen as a potential rival to the Irwins and he also won his court case.

Wildlife warriors? - It could be described as a charity scam as in one recent year, the entire donation base was effectively swallowed up in so-called "administration" costs.
Meanwile numerous genuine wildlife rescue charities have starved for lack of funds and well-meaning donations are siphoned off by the "wildlife warriors" business.
Yes the registered trademark "wildlife warriors" is owned and heavily guarded by an Irwin associated business entity.

By the way, the turtle species Steve Irwin harassed a friend of his John Cann, to name in his honour, namely Elseya irwini Cann, 1997, has also been effectively killed off in the same as Steve Irwin himself and in this case it is also a very good thing. The reason is that the correct name for the species is in fact Elseya stirlingi Wells and Wellington, 1985.
So it is not Steve Irwin's turtle as Teri Irwin and her cohort would have you believe. It is in fact Stirling's Turtle, named after a genuine wildlife conservationist, Stan Stirling, of Kuranda, Queensland.
Under ICZN rules, the first name assigned to a newly identified species is the correct one and the newer ones are literally junked.
When a person or persons attempt to rename a species already named as has happened here, and then tries to get others to use the incorrect pater name, this is known as "taxonomic vandalism" and this is about the worst crime possible in both zoology and wildlife conservation. This is because of the time wasted by later scientists correcting the deliberate mistake/s of the taxonomic vandals. While John Cann may have been misguided in improperly renaming the Stirling's Turtle, Elseya irwini, those who have peddled the illegal name since 1997 most certainly are taxonomic vandals and are certainly no friends of conservation whatsoever!

PS There are still plenty of Stirling's Turtles in the rivers of North Queensland!