re: animal protection
The times I saw him on TV, he seemed to be very sensitive to the natural behavior of the animals he was presenting, and most of them seemed at ease with him. He never hurt anything. I never got the impression that anyone but Irwin would come out of an encounter in worse shape than when they went in.
I don't have the details, but I understand that Irwin has been a large force for conservation in both Australia and the U.S., putting a lot of money into such projects. There's more than one way to "protect" an animal.