QUEENSLAND, Australia, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- Australia's crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin, likely will have to wait before taking his young children with him into crocodile pens anytime soon.
Queensland's Workplace Health and Safety division is re-drafting crocodile handling guidelines after a widely publicized, videotaped incident in which Irwin held his 1-month-old son while feeding a 12-foot saltwater crocodile during a display at his Queensland zoo earlier this month, the Brisbane Courier reported Wednesday.
The Department of Industrial Relations cleared Irwin of workplace breaches but confirmed new guidelines that included a ban on children entering crocodile enclosures was being drafted.
Current guidelines don't mention children being carried into crocodile pens and don't include specific definitions of who is allowed to work in such environments.
Australian crocodile farm owner Malcolm Douglas complained on at least two occasions about Irwin's behavior with children around crocodiles, the Courier said.
"I wrote to you months ago about Steve taking his infant daughter into the crocodile pens," Douglas wrote in a letter to a Queensland Workplace Health and Safety official June 17, 2002. "He is still doing it and you have not stopped him."
