One of the most shared memes of the day uses a still of actor John Krasinski as Jim from The Office, grinning through window blinds. The joke imagines Irwin quietly enjoying the internet rushing to his defence.
On February 22, 2019, Google marked what would have been Steve Irwin's 57th birthday with a slideshow Doodle. The same day, the animal rights group PETA posted on Twitter that Irwin "was killed while harassing a ray" and that the Doodle sent a "dangerous, fawning message." The first tweet drew around 20,000 replies, most of them furious, and the row became one of the biggest pile-ons of the week.
This page explains what each side actually said, who Steve Irwin was, where PETA's criticism has a point and where it falls down, and then walks through 35 of the best-known replies and memes, with the facts behind the claims they make.
What Google and PETA posted
The Doodle, illustrated by artist Shanti Rittgers, told Irwin's life in a series of slides: catching and relocating crocodiles as a young man, his TV career, his showmanship and his family. Google's tweet called him a legendary wildlife advocate whose passion opened millions of eyes to nature.
Google Doodles' original "CRIKEY!" tweet, posted early on February 22, 2019, with Rittgers' cartoon of Irwin holding a crocodile. It linked to the full slideshow and gathered tens of thousands of likes.
PETA's first response, posted later that day. It referred to Irwin's death from a stingray barb, to a 2004 incident in which he fed a crocodile while holding his baby son, and to his habit of handling wild animals on camera.
PETA's follow-up early on February 23 argued that a true wildlife expert leaves animals alone in their natural homes. Rather than calming things, the second tweet kept the argument going for another day.
A third PETA tweet objected to exotic animals, including young ones, being taken to TV studios and conferences. This is the core of the group's position: it opposes using animals for entertainment of any kind.
PETA also posted a repeated line saying that forcing animals to perform is wrong, illustrated with circus-tent and animal emoji. It ties the Irwin debate to the group's long campaigns against circuses and performing animals.
Who Steve Irwin was
Stephen Robert Irwin was born on February 22, 1962, in Victoria, Australia. His parents, Bob and Lyn Irwin, ran a small reptile park in Beerwah, Queensland, and as a young man Steve helped catch problem crocodiles so they could be relocated rather than shot. He took over the park in 1991 and renamed it Australia Zoo in 1998. His TV series The Crocodile Hunter made him one of the most recognisable nature presenters in the world.
Off camera, he founded what became Wildlife Warriors Worldwide, helped set up International Crocodile Rescue and bought large tracts of land in Australia and abroad to protect wildlife habitat. His family still runs the zoo and its wildlife hospital.
Irwin died on September 4, 2006, at Batt Reef near Port Douglas, Queensland, while filming a documentary. A short-tail stingray's barb pierced his chest. Stingrays are generally not aggressive, and his death was an extremely rare accident. In 2018 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Is PETA's criticism fair? Both sides
PETA's argument is not invented from nothing. Irwin's style was physical: he grabbed snakes, jumped on crocodiles and brought animals close to the camera, which some biologists and welfare advocates have long questioned. The "baby" reference is to January 2, 2004, when Irwin hand-fed a chicken carcass to a large saltwater crocodile named Murray while holding his one-month-old son, Robert. He was widely criticised, no charges were filed, and Queensland later barred children and untrained adults from crocodile enclosures.
The anger came from timing and tone. PETA chose a birthday tribute to a man who had died more than 12 years earlier, and it framed his death as a consequence of "harassing" a ray. Many people also pointed out that the group had attacked Irwin before: in 2006, shortly after his death, PETA vice-president Dan Mathews said Irwin had built his career on antagonising frightened wild animals, prompting an Australian MP to demand an apology.
Fans also turned the spotlight on PETA's own record, especially its shelter in Norfolk, Virginia, where reports filed with the state have shown very high euthanasia rates. PETA says the shelter is a "last resort" that takes in sick, aggressive or unadoptable animals others turn away, and calls the killings merciful. Critics say that explanation does not fit the numbers. Both positions are worth knowing before judging the jokes below.
Debates like this, where a brand's online message triggers a much larger backlash, have become a pattern. A month earlier, Gillette's 2019 Advertisement and the Debate Around It produced a similar storm.
The replies: fans, celebrities and a "global alliance"
This reply accused PETA of a high kill rate, of funding a convicted arsonist and of links to radical groups. The first point refers to the Norfolk shelter figures; the second to PETA's reported 1990s support for the legal defence of activist Rodney Coronado, who was convicted over an arson attack at a university.
A cartoon meme shows a hawk labelled PETA swooping on a kitten labelled "Steve Irwin's legacy", only to be intercepted by a dog labelled "everyone else". It neatly sums up how many people saw the exchange: a defence of someone who could no longer answer back.
YouTuber Jacksepticeye compared PETA to an uninvited party guest who ruins the pool just to get a reaction. With nearly 95,000 likes, it was one of the most popular replies of the day.
A photo tribute pairs Irwin holding a snake with a family portrait of Terri, Bindi and baby Robert. The quote printed beneath, about crocodiles being easier than people, is often attributed to Irwin, but we could not find a reliable original source for it.
Twitter user Dave Hogg wrote that few people had done more for wildlife conservation and education than the Irwin family, and asked PETA to apologise. His calm tone stood out amid the angrier replies.
A comic thread in which one user "declared war" on PETA on behalf of Australia, and others signed up from the US, Sweden (bringing meatballs) and Germany. The running joke turned the backlash into a mock international coalition.
The Jim-through-the-blinds meme again, this time in a larger format that spread across Reddit and Instagram. Reposting the same joke across platforms is how a single tweet becomes a multi-day news story.
The "Left Exit 12 Off Ramp" meme shows a car labelled PETA swerving away from "actually helping animals" toward "insulting a dead man who taught kids about valuing the Earth". It captured the most common complaint: that the tweet was about attention, not animals.
A version of the "Change My Mind" meme, built on a photo of commentator Steven Crowder at a table, with a sign comparing PETA to the Westboro Baptist Church. The comparison is hyperbole, aimed at PETA's reputation for provocative protests.
Commentator Kambree Kawahine Koa asked where PETA's wildlife reserves were, contrasting them with the land Irwin bought for conservation. Her reply ended with the pun "What a croc" and passed 89,000 likes.
More replies and the memes that followed
Actor and singer Drake Bell called the tweet disgusting and reminded PETA that Irwin was a father and husband. Celebrity replies like this pushed the story onto entertainment news sites around the world.
A fake "breaking news" graphic claimed Elon Musk had bought PETA and deleted it. It was made with a joke news generator, the watermark is visible at the top, and nothing of the kind ever happened.
A user copied the format of PETA's "forcing animals to perform is wrong" tweet, swapping in "putting innocent animals down is wrong". The parody pointed straight at the euthanasia figures from PETA's Virginia shelter.
The popular account UberFacts summed up Irwin's career with "Thank u, next", then asked whether PETA still euthanised 81 percent of animals in its shelters. PETA's shelter reports have shown rates above 80 percent in some years, which the group attributes to taking in animals no one else will.
A screenshot of an online petition asking for PETA to be declared a hate group, paired with a "so proud of this community" reaction image. Petitions like this have no legal power, but they show how strong the feeling was.
A Power Rangers meme casts Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook as heroes combining into a giant robot to attack PETA. For once, rival platforms seemed to agree on something.
Two photos of Irwin's famously expressive face illustrate the mood swing from outrage at the tweet to delight at the backlash. His exaggerated expressions were part of what made him such a natural presenter.
A SpongeBob meme contrasts a calm SpongeBob ("when animal abusers set up dog fights") with a furious, muscular one ("when Chrome changes its logo to honour Steve Irwin"). It exaggerates to suggest PETA's priorities were misplaced.
One reply shared a donation to Australia Zoo's Wildlife Warriors, made "in celebration of" Irwin with a cheeky note about PETA. Some fans answered the tweet by giving to the Irwins' conservation work instead of arguing.
Ryan Magee accused PETA of deliberately using a beloved man's name to get attention, calling it rage marketing. That idea, that controversy is part of PETA's strategy, was quoted in news coverage of the backlash.
Kambree Kawahine Koa again, this time urging Australia Zoo, Bindi, Robert and Terri Irwin not to waste energy on a reply. The Irwin family did not publicly join the argument.
Author Maureen Johnson, writing as a vegetarian, said the Irwins reclaim land and run a large wildlife rescue. Her point was that people who care about animal welfare can still disagree sharply with PETA.
A Reddit "showerthought" played on the word "attack": Irwin would not want people to attack PETA because we are meant to be kind to animals. The gentle joke reached the top of the forum.
A Simpsons scene of Groundskeeper Willie and a child is relabelled to show PETA grabbing at Steve Irwin, then the internet grabbing PETA. It is a quick visual summary of how the day unfolded.
The "Roll Safe" meme has a man tapping his temple next to the line "You don't gotta worry about animal abuse if there aren't any animals left". It is another jab at PETA's euthanasia record.
Darla from Finding Nemo, the girl who shakes fish bags until their occupants die, is offered as "PETA's first animal rescue, colorized". The joke works because the character is famous for loving animals to death.
Buzz Lightyear's line about there being no sign of intelligent life anywhere is captioned "steps into PETA's office". It is a classic reaction meme reused for the occasion.
Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants asks whether he really should defile a grave for money, then digs anyway. Here the grave is Irwin's, a pointed take on the idea that PETA criticised him for publicity.
A reply quoting a Guardian headline about PETA apologising for taking a girl's pet asked about its "policy on leaving chihuahuas alone". It refers to a real 2014 case in Virginia in which PETA workers took a family's chihuahua, which was then euthanised; the state fined PETA $500.
A SpongeBob and Patrick meme compares the PETA row to anger at Maroon 5, whose February 2019 Super Bowl half-time show was criticised for not honouring SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg. That month, it seemed the internet had plenty of grievances to choose from.
Fact-checking the claims in the replies
- "PETA euthanises 81 percent of shelter animals." Figures vary by year. PETA itself acknowledged euthanising 95 percent of animals at its Norfolk shelter in 2011, and the rate was above 80 percent in 2014. PETA says it takes in animals other shelters will not accept.
- The chihuahua case. Real. In November 2014, two workers took a family's dog from a trailer park in Accomack County, Virginia, and it was euthanised. Criminal charges were dropped for lack of intent, but Virginia's agriculture department issued a $500 fine.
- "Irwin was killed while harassing a ray." He was filming close to a stingray when it struck, which is why the claim has a kernel of fact. Calling it harassment is PETA's opinion; the encounter was an accident during routine filming.
- The crocodile quote. The line about crocodiles being easier than people is widely shared online with Irwin's name, but no reliable source confirms he said it.
- "Elon buys PETA and deletes it." A joke made with a fake news generator.
The episode shows how quickly a single post can become a referendum on an organisation's whole history. Whatever you think of Irwin's style, his work drew millions of people, especially children, into caring about wildlife, and that legacy continues through Australia Zoo and the conservation projects his family still runs.
Sources: The New Daily, February 23, 2019: PETA slammed over Steve Irwin tweets; Wikipedia: Steve Irwin; Wikipedia: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Screenshots: posts by the named Twitter and Reddit users, Google Doodles and PETA.
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