Croc Feud Down Under Turns Ugly

And this time it has nothing to do with Germaine Greer. Australia's News.Com carries this report:

Mick Pitman, who claims to be Australia's original "Croc Hunter", had been locked in a bitter dispute with Irwin over the use of the term after the media celebrity threatened him with legal action in 2004. Mr Pitman said he had been inundated with "a couple of hundred" abusive emails since Irwin, 44, died when he was stabbed in the chest by a stingray barb while snorkelling off Port Douglas in Queensland's far north yesterday.

"I'm getting so much stuff like 'Hope you catch AIDS' and 'Steve Irwin was the only ever Crocodile Hunter'," Mr Pitman said today.He said the emails had all been sent by people overseas. Mr Pitman was a self-confessed poacher for 16 years until 1996 and is now based in Darwin, where he works as a taxidermist and manufacturer of crocodile leather.

The feud escalated in late 2004 when Mr Pitman accused Irwin of setting him up after police questioned him about claims he had threatened to blow up Irwin's Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. Mr Pitman later released a rap song about his confrontations with Irwin, while a petition which urges people to have their say about the name rights tussle still exists on his website. Mr Pitman, 48, said he was saddened at the news of Irwin's death but fans had taken the abuse too far. He also refused to stop calling himself The Crocodile Hunter.

Crikey.