Queensland<\/a> environment department said on Tuesday that they were actively investigating two videos shared on social media by Mr Holston, which showed him restraining crocodiles. <\/p>\nOne video had more than 32 million views on Instagram. Over 15 million people follow him on the platform. <\/p>\n
In one of the clips, he can be heard saying: \u201cEver since I was a kid I wanted to come to Australia and just look at crocodiles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese actions are extremely dangerous and illegal, and we are actively exploring strong compliance action including fines to deter any person from this type of behaviour,\u201d a statement by the Queensland authorities said.<\/p>\n
After the videos by Mr Holston were shared widely, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) demanded that he face full legal penalties, be deported, and be barred from reentering Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cAside from it being illegal and unfathomably stupid to interfere with a crocodile in Queensland, it\u2019s also incredibly cruel,\u201d PETA advisor Mimi Bekhechi said, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation. <\/p>\n
\u201cJust like wombats, koalas and other native Australian wildlife, crocodiles are sensitive individuals who experience pain and stress, and who deserve to live in peace without fear that visiting influencers will tackle and roughly handle them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Queensland premier David Crisafulli labelled the influencer a \u201cgoose\u201d, saying that while the state environment department would investigate the incident, immigration issues fall under the federal government\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you think that is a sustainable business model to go wrestling with saltwater crocodiles, I think it\u2019s probably not going to end the way that he thinks it\u2019s going to,\u201d Mr Crisafulli said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone stupid enough to do that shouldn’t be lauded and shouldn\u2019t be praised \u2013 they should be called out for being an idiot.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr Irwin demanded stricter action. \u201cThe repeated line from our regulators [of] \u2018we are investigating\u2019 in response to these incidents is wearing thin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe message is only going to sink in when we see these so-called influencers held to account and understand that 15 million followers don\u2019t make you exempt from the laws that protect our wildlife.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to understand that not one person has been prosecuted in Queensland since the new legislation was introduced.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to 7News, he frequently shares videos featuring dangerous wildlife, such as king cobras and king brown snakes. His Instagram is full of his pictures with wild animals. <\/p>\n
His recent videos with the crocodiles, however, sparked furious reactions online. \u201cThis is horrible. That crocodile is so stressed. The behaviour is illegal, and the crocodiles are a protected species,\u201d one person wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t they die from stress? This feels like cruelty. You could have just zoomed in and explained the same thing,\u201d another wrote.<\/p>\n
The Independent has reached out to Mr Holston for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-134066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}