Stingray named Steve Irwin attacks owner James Hunt from Southend Essex A stingray named Steve Irwin has attacked its owner after a few days after he bought the creature. IT WAS only days after James Hunt bought his pet stingray, named Steve Irwin, before the creature sunk its three-inch barb in his arm. Mr Hunt, from Southend, Essex, was moving the stingray from one tank to another when it attacked. I felt like I was dying. The pain in my arm was excruciating," he told the Daily Mail. I was in agony. The intense pain was spreading from my wrist to my elbow, then it started going towards my shoulder. "I remember asking the doctors to not let me die, but I tried to keep calm because if you panic it makes the venom spread faster," he said. Mr Hunt said he named one of his new pet stingrays after the late "wildlife Warrior" Steve Irwin, who was killed by a stingray in 2006. He bought the two stingrays for 150 pounds on August 25 and says despite his stint in hospital and the antibiotics that he is currently taking that he has no plans to get rid of his new pets. It was my fault. I knew they could be dangerous and I just took a chance," he said. I was tired from the move and only had three hours sleep. I won't be doing that again. Host Andrew Denton with the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin on "Enough Rope" in 2003.