The boy, 5, who was eaten alive by a crocodile in front of his brother.

[Beorn]

The boy, 5, who was eaten alive by a crocodile in front of his brother


A boy of five has been eaten by a crocodile in Australia while trying to shoo it away from his boxer puppy.
The killer reptile has been caught but will not be destroyed - at the request of the boy's family.
Jeremy Doble's parents Steve and Sharon run a crocodile-spotting tourism business.



Tragedy: Crocodile victim Jeremy Doble (centre) with mother Sharon and big brother Ryan, who is believed to have witnessed the horrifying attack


He was last seen 12 days ago playing near the family home beside a flooded mangrove swamp in northern Queensland.
His brother Ryan, seven, said that Jeremy followed the puppy into the water and tried to coax it back to shore, after seeing a crocodile approaching.
Ryan, who witnessed the attack, told police that he saw the crocodile swimming away in the Daintree River moments after Jeremy disappeared.
Police say the boy was eaten by the 14ft beast, named Goldie, who was then trapped in a flooded river.
Forensic scientists were able to confirm the boy's remains were in its stomach after using a special microscope to examine it.
Goldie will now be sent to a crocodile farm or zoo to live out the rest of his days.
It is understood that Jeremy's parents believe crocodile attacks are a sad fact of life in northern Queensland. They say that Goldie was a dominant male in that part of the river and was simply acting on instinct - so he should not be put down.

The number of crocodiles in the region has grown steadily since they were protected by law in 1971.
Problem reptiles which threaten humans can be killed, but first the authorities will seek the advice of crocodile catchers to ask if they can be transported to another area.
One northern Queensland resident said that the death of Steve Irwin had made controlling the problem more difficult.
'Although there are some good croc catchers around, we're all missing Steve Irwin,' he said.
'He was brilliant at hunting them down, catching them and shifting them to a part of the river where they weren't any threat to humans.'
Irwin was killed by a stingray barb while swimming off the north Queensland coast in September.
Locals described Jeremy as a 'sweet and gentle-natured' boy.
They said that his father was fixing a broken wooden walkway over the swamp when he heard Ryan screaming.
He ran to the water and threw himself in, but could find no trace of his son.
Police, emergency services volunteers and local tour guides then scoured the waters and swamps, but found nothing.
A 10ft female crocodile was captured last week but an examination of its stomach found no trace of the child.
Then the main suspect, Goldie, was captured.
Local resident Col Patterson said the family had owned the tourism business for five years.
He said: 'Ryan's dad jumped in after him but it was too late.
'His older brother saw it all and will, no doubt, be haunted by that image.'
Jeremy's death comes four months after British-born Arthur Booker, on holiday with his wife, was killed by a crocodile in the same region.

Source

[Æmeric]

I suppose it is magnanimous of them to forgive the crocodile.

This is a case of putting wildlife above human life. If the child was killed by a domesticated dog, would there be any question of destroying the animal. And allowing hunting to control the numbers of wild animals would be helpful. If there are too many of a particular species they will have to roam further to find food. The croc was hungry, otherwise it wouldn't have eaten the boy.

[Gooding]

My respects to the family and sorrow for their loss..
All the same, there should be some kind of enforced control of the crocodile population and as many man-eaters as possible should be wiped out..

[Beorn]

My eldest daughter is five, and if this had happened to her I would not live with myself; but for the elder brother to have imprinted in his memory till the die he dies, the sight of his younger brother being eaten by a crocodile is absolutely gut wrenching.

My prayers are with that boy tonight.

[Arundel]

I suppose it is magnanimous of them to forgive the crocodile.

This is a case of putting wildlife above human life. If the child was killed by a domesticated dog, would there be any question of destroying the animal. And allowing hunting to control the numbers of wild animals would be helpful. If there are too many of a particular species they will have to roam further to find food. The croc was hungry, otherwise it wouldn't have eaten the boy.

Crocodiles
I am a great animal lover. I love animals more than people. But I don't think there is any place in this world for crocodiles/alligators. They are just a vicious eating machine, trying to catch anything they can over power, they even eat their own babies sometimes. I did not know, until I started seeing them on television, that the alligators are all over Florida, since people have encroached on their habitat. I understand Florida has many canals that come right up to the populated areas, & it makes it easy for the alligators to approach homes, looking for something to eat. People find them on their patios, in their yards, eating their pets, etc. I do not consider them an endangered species at all, they should not be part of our modern civilization. If I walked out in my yard & there was an alligator there, I would move to a state that is free of them, if I didn't die of fright first.

[Treffie]

Crocodiles
I am a great animal lover. I love animals more than people. But I don't think there is any place in this world for crocodiles/alligators.

I'm not keen on the creepy critters either but unfortunately they're an essential part of the food chain - if it wasn't for them, their prey would run riot and displace the natural balance of the environment. And of course, they're great survivors - gotta give them that.

[Brynhild]

I suppose it is magnanimous of them to forgive the crocodile.

This is a case of putting wildlife above human life. If the child was killed by a domesticated dog, would there be any question of destroying the animal. And allowing hunting to control the numbers of wild animals would be helpful. If there are too many of a particular species they will have to roam further to find food. The croc was hungry, otherwise it wouldn't have eaten the boy.

A crocodile can't be compared to a domesticated animal. They are wild to start with and have always been so. If our pets turn on us, it is likened to an act of betrayal, whereas the croc is territorial and will always defend it. The parents know the nature of these creatures, and I believe they made the right decision, albeit a heartbreaking one.

My respects to the family and sorrow for their loss..
All the same, there should be some kind of enforced control of the crocodile population and as many man-eaters as possible should be wiped out..

They are culled, but that isn't the long-term solution. People need to be educated about the dangers, and the locals - for the most part - know this. It is a shame that we don't seem to have any hunters of the same calibre as Steve Irwin.

My eldest daughter is five, and if this had happened to her I would not live with myself; but for the elder brother to have imprinted in his memory till the die he dies, the sight of his younger brother being eaten by a crocodile is absolutely gut wrenching.

My prayers are with that boy tonight.

I really don't know how the brother will recover, if ever. I wouldn't live anywhere like that with my kids. It'd kill me if I had to bury my kids before they buried me.

Crocodiles
I am a great animal lover. I love animals more than people. But I don't think there is any place in this world for crocodiles/alligators. They are just a vicious eating machine, trying to catch anything they can over power, they even eat their own babies sometimes.

That is a gross exaggeration of what crocodiles are. They are simply territorial creatures who survive totally on their instincts. Other animals kill and eat their young as well. For example, when they know one of their young is ill and not fit to live.

I did not know, until I started seeing them on television, that the alligators are all over Florida, since people have encroached on their habitat. I understand Florida has many canals that come right up to the populated areas, & it makes it easy for the alligators to approach homes, looking for something to eat. People find them on their patios, in their yards, eating their pets, etc. I do not consider them an endangered species at all, they should not be part of our modern civilization. If I walked out in my yard & there was an alligator there, I would move to a state that is free of them, if I didn't die of fright first.

And yet people will still build their homes in such places where they've always known about alligator infestations.

In Australia, it's the (usually overseas) foolish tourists who will stick their big toe in the water - despite all the warning signs about the dangers of swimming in crocodile infested waters - that is the major reason for the killings. Even so, you are more likely to die in a car accident.

In that part of FNQ there were floods and unfortunately for that family there was a stray croc.

I'm not keen on the creepy critters either but unfortunately they're an essential part of the food chain - if it wasn't for them, their prey would run riot and displace the natural balance of the environment. And of course, they're great survivors - gotta give them that.

300 million+ years to be precise. They are an integral part of our ecosystem. Crocs get a bad rap, like sharks. If you dare to go into their territory, be prepared to enter at your own peril.

[Revenant]

They are culled, but that isn't the long-term solution.

When there's tens of thousands and they only kill 600 annually (NT) culling is pointless.

They outlawed game hunting of them in the 70s but recently since they're reaching pest proportions they proposed to bring it back, good idea. Don't think it'll happen though unfortunately.

[Gooding]

I must confess that I wouldn't mourn the extinction of the great white shark, either, but it seems that the crocodiles are the greater threat in that part of the world..

[SwordoftheVistula]

Did they feed the crocs? A tour guide this summer I had told me that crocs/alligators would attack people because people fed them and thus they learned to associate 'people' with 'food'. Since feeding such animals was outlawed in that state, one could swim in the same waters without fear of attack.