Crocodile Dumb-dee in dock
Celebrity hunter Steve Irwin could lose his multi-million-pound TV empire after he fed a crocodile while holding his baby, it was claimed yesterday.
The Australian has faced an onslaught of bad publicity after viewers saw him hand-feed a 13ft crocodile while cradling his month-old son Robert.
Thousands of fans called for Irwin's top-rated show, which plays to a global audience of 500million and rakes in about £7million a year, to be axed. The strongest condemnation came from America, where Irwin was once a firm favourite.
Child welfare groups compared the incident to abuse, claiming the TV star endangered his baby.
But Irwin yesterday insisted Robert was never at risk and rejected comparisons with pop star Michael Jackson, who dangled his infant son from a balcony in Berlin in 2002.
'I would never, ever put him in any danger, not in a million years,' he said.
'To hear people say it was a publicity stunt, that I'm just like Michael Jackson well, it just tears me up. It makes me sick to my stomach to be compared in that way.'
The storm intensified yesterday as it was reported that Irwin and his wife Terri also told their five-yearold daughter Bindi to splash around in a pool near a crocodile pen to encourage the reptiles to swim out. Police said they would not bring charges.
