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Sunday Night blames it on Steve Irwin

Apparently Steve Irwin is to blame for wild animals being domesticated and then abandoned.

According to Sunday Night promos, Steve Irwin is to blame for all the wild animals that become domesticated then abandoned by careless pet owners. Never mind that there were plenty of wildlife experts before him. Never mind that he has two kids who have to listen to this stuff. And what about all the things he did of value?

A Cure in Sight
The world applauded three months ago when it was revealed Australian scientists had won the race to produce the first implanted bionic eye. The prototype was implanted into Melbourne mum Dianne Ashworth. With her help, scientists are now fast tracking the next device, which could transform the lives of millions of people around the world. Among them is Rachael Leahcar, the blind teenager who captivated the nation as a contestant on The Voice and could be a prime candidate to receive a bionic eye. But incredibly, on the cusp of making medical history, the entire Bionic Eye project is under threat from a lack of cash. When the money former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd pledged runs out at the end of the year, key scientists will be forced to leave the unfinished project. Rudd risks the wrath of Julia Gillard by telling Sunday Night guest reporter Peter FitzSimons why the government must continue to back the bionic eye.

Living with Danger
Imagine having a polar bear as a pet. What about a pride of lions in the backyard or a cuddly grizzly bear of your very own? The sale of dangerous and exotic pets is a booming industry, but it’s a practice with a dark side as the animals are a threat to their owners and can languish without proper specialised care. Rahni Sadler meets the expert who has to rescue and relocate dozens of these animals every year, and who blames the late Steve Irwin for fostering this interest in wild animal ownership. In this Sunday Night investigation, Sadler also discovers the sad fate of arguably the world’s most famous exotic pet – Michael Jackson’s former pet chimp Bubbles.

Dustin Hoffman
It’s been 35 years since a young Dustin Hoffman became an overnight star thanks to his on-screen seduction by the much older Mrs Robinson in The Graduate. Now, the two-time Oscar winner reminisces with Ross Coulthart about his incredible career. Hoffman is at his charming best when he re-enacts his Oscar-winning role as an autistic savant with extraordinary mathematic abilities in Rain Man. And while his 1982 cross-dressing caper Tootsie is one of the best comedies of all time, even funnier is his story about walking into a bar dressed as Tootsie and trying to pick up a male friend. But Hoffman isn’t all about the Hollywood high life. In this deeply personal interview he also opens up about his difficult relationship with his father and the self-doubt that made him beg to drop out of Rain Man.

Sunday, November 18 at 6.30pm on Channel 7.

16 Responses

  1. I have never been so offended in my life.. Typical americans. Steve irwin was an inspiration to many people i work with, He is not to blame for peoples idiotic behaviour when it comes it dangerous animals!, The only people that should be in possession of exotic animals are zoological parks and institutes. You can take the animal out of the wild but your can’t take the wild out of the animal!!. If it attackes you then you deserve everything you get, sorry but it’s true.

    -Zookeeper

  2. I don’t ever remember Steve Irwin walking a Tiger or mountain lion onto a talk show but I know Jack Hanna does it quite often on the David Letterman show, you know that show that most Americans watch and take their lead from, but hey, Seven don’t waste time on research when you can sensationalize some one who can’t speak back with lawyers,, cowards,,

  3. Personally I think that Irwin was a fairly moronic TV act. But to blame him for animals in captivity?! That is a long blow. The fault obviously lines at the feet of Sonny Hammond! Yes Skippy!!

  4. I have never been more offended after seeing the ad for this, Steve Irwin was no only an Australian hero, but he was a conservationist on a world level, after becoming a fan of his i developed a strong passion for wildlife and I am presently looking for jobs in QLD in reptile relocation, if you wanted to blame Steve for anything it would be getting people to help animals not keep them as pets, there is even a crocodile hunter episode in east Timor where he trys to get the village people to let go of the snake they have a pet and that was just python

    shame on the people who blamed Steve Irwin

  5. Irwin’s fault,spare me.No doubt they’ll wheel out some xpert pinhead to prattle on about the US mainly,that’s where the problem of keeping whatever wild animal you like originated from…..

  6. I’m no fan of someone who made a living out of showing off by manhandling and molesting wildlife but to suggest that Irwin is to blame is a very long bow to draw.

    The people who are to blame are the US lawmakers (state and federal) that allow almost anyone to keep almost any animal, and the black-market exotic pet traders who facilitate and feed the desire of ill-informed and irresponsible people.

  7. First I agree, low blow ch7!

    But doesn’t this sound a lot like a story on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago, where they talked about wild and exotic Australia animals people in the US can legally keep but here in Australia we can’t. There side was if more people could keep them then their would be less chance of some of them going extinct. But they weren’t taking about lions and crocs.

    Also Bones has a similar themed episode recently.

  8. Ellen had Clint Eastwood’s daughter and another person on her show who are on a US tv show that rescues wild and or exotic animals from peoples homes. Sorry I can’t remember more, but it sounds similar to that story.

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