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Video Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NdcKA_Tnn4
Michael Hornby, the executive director of Irwin's Wildlife Warriors conservation group, said he was concerned the rays were being hunted and killed in retaliation for Irwin's death. • It may be some sort of retribution, or it may be fear from certain individuals, or it just may be yet another callous act toward wildlife, he said. • He said killing stingrays was not what Steve was about. • We are disgusted and disappointed that people would take this sort of action to hurt wildlife, he said. • Stingrays are usually shy, unobtrusive fish that rummage the sea bottom for food or burrow into the sand. • They have a serrated spine up to 10 inches long on their tails, which they can lash when stepped on or otherwise frightened. • The spines emit toxins that can kill many small creatures and cause excruciating pain in humans. Few people have died from the poison, but the spines can badly tear flesh and the wounds are prone to infections, including tetanus. • Hornby said people should treat stingrays with caution, but there is still no need to kill or mutilate these important animals. • http://kutv.com/slideshows/local_slid... • Steve Irwin's final words have been revealed by the man who shot the popular Australian's fatal last scene. • Cameraman Justin Lyons was the only person to witness 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin's final moments and he has now opened up about them for the first time. • Stingrays are normally very calm - if they don't want you to be near them, they'll swim away, Lyons told Network Ten's Studio 10 show. • We stood up and said, 'One last shot. You swim up from behind the animal and I'll try to get a shot of it swimming away'. • All of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail. Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds. • I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away - I didn't even know it had caused any damage. It wasn't until I panned the camera back and Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realised something was wrong. • Many early reports suggested that Irwin tried to remove the barb from his chest, something Lyons insists is untrue. • The stingray barb was a blade of about a foot extending out of the tail. Steve didn't pull it out; it's a jagged, sharp barb and it went through Steve's chest like a hot knife through butter. • Lyons continued and revealed Irwin was in extreme pain when they dragged him above water and on to the boat. • We assessed the situation for about five seconds. He had a two-inch injury over his heart with blood coming out of it, he added. • He was in extraordinary pain - they've got a venom on their barb, so I knew it must've been painful. • While Irwin fought for his life, Lyons urged him to think of his family - wife Terri and children Bindi and Robert - but it was all to no avail. • He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, 'I'm dying'. And that was the last thing he said, he continued. • We hoped for a miracle. I did CPR on him for over an hour before the medics came, but then they pronounced him dead within 10 seconds of looking at him.
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