What the fuck’s going on with humans’ cruel and sadistic treatment of animals these days? Has the world of man gone completely mad?
If you have the feeling there’s a kind of quickening—an acceleration of human evil—happening lately, you’re not alone. I’ve noticed it for a while now. From Sears carrying “I love wolf hunting” T-shirts to the Wildlife Services round up and gassing Canada geese, so many bizarre, shocking and downright malevolent deeds have come to light in the past few days that I hereby declare this “What the Fuck Week.” (WTFW will run from now until further notice.)
Early last evening the warm autumn air brought out a hatch of flying termites. Clumsy in flight, they lose their wings shortly after finding a suitable log or house to bore into. An entire industry was built around trying to exterminate them, when nature has long held the key to termite control—namely, bats. And last night there were more bats circling the house than I’ve seen all summer. Bats big and small were out in force, dodging each other to get to their temporarily-winged prey.
Much has come to light in recent years about the benefits of bats as managers of mosquitos and other undesirables.
But just today in my inbox I received the following petition about an absurd and sadistic reality show that caused me to let out a “What the Fuck?!” loud enough to rattle the termites out of their burrows:
………..
The Discovery Channel: Stop showing videos of Bear Grylls mutilating, killing and eating innocent animals
This petition will be delivered to: Chairman, Discovery Communications, LLC, John S. Hendricks
In a clip from Man vs Wild (formerly on The Discovery Channel) Bear Grylls used smoke to flush bats from a cave and then struck the fleeing, terrified animals with a makeshift club and stomped on them with what seemed to be glee, jokingly referring to it as “bat tennis.”
Yes, this actually happened, and it is not an isolated incident. Aside from bats, Bear has killed alligators, monitor lizards, capybaras and even boas. None of these animals are killed in anywhere near a humane manner; they are simply beaten to death for the amusement of the viewing public.
This can’t be overstated enough: for those who care about animals, the videos available online showing his frequent atrocities are very, very difficult to watch. If you seek them out to see for yourself, please be aware of this.
In replying to email complaints about the show, The Discovery Channel defended itself by saying that Bear was imparting valuable survival information and, unbelievably, that it was his Bear’s “style!” Such “stylistic” concerns as applied to people comprises much of the notoriety of serial killers. As for the conveyance of vital survival tips, opting to beat, kill and eat whatever animals are near is very clearly a rash and inadvisable course of action. Real survival experts – the ones who actually survive in the wilderness rather than preen their sad macho survivalist fantasies on television – say that pretty much everything Bear Grylls does or says to do will get you killed. There is no worthwhile information whatsoever that can only be conveyed by filming oneself killing innocent, healthy animals, and terrorizing and bludgeoning sleeping bats right at their doorstep.
Let us not forget that Bear Grylls was exposed for staying in hotels overnight while filming a show that falsely portrayed him as embattled by harsh wilderness.
Profiting from the utterly pointless killing of these bats – and all animals – is unilaterally unacceptable, and while the show may now be cancelled, Discovery still has the video and others like it up for viewing on their website, meaning that they as well as Bear are still profiting from engineering, perpetrating and showing the deaths of these innocent animals to audiences worldwide.
Please contact those responsible for fouling our televisions with his presence. Please also feel free to join the Bear Barbaric Bear Grylls Facebook page to voice your opinion: https://www.facebook.com/BoycottBarbaricBearGrylls
Exposing the Big Game 
I might call the whole year WTF YEAR!
Yep…
I accidently watched a short section of Man vs Wild when it first came on-And I didn’t want anything else to do with it. If that was the guy who shot a polar bear and then ate a hunk of it raw talking about all the calories to be got from the blubber-he had blood smeared all over his face and a loony glint in his eye. I fled from my TV that night-certain the world was gone to Hell along with Man vs Food and Bizarre Foods Zimmerman.
“I fled from my TV that night-certain the world was gone to Hell” That’s how I feel every time I see ads for those sorry excuses for entertainment.
The pervasive, perveted sickness of mind has been ongoing since the contact period over 500 years ago. Only now it can spread faster than wildfire over cable tv and the internet. And the sicko’s find each other and try to out-do each other’s acts of animal abuse. I think strong complaints on hand written letters to the FCC and the cable providers and the networks is a good start. Any letter to the latter two should have c.c. to the FCC, your state reps and the president at the bottom of the page. If nothing else, it will get the programming director’s attention. Also make it a point to include your local churches and civic organizations as well as school boards in this protest.
I am with you as a fan of bats, who are under attack from a deadly virus as it is! Every time I hear fireworks or gun shots, I worry that the bats are being stressed out and in pain from the loud noises and it probably has a negative result on their immune systems?
Bats, not unlike wolves, have been abused for no reason for centuries. Undeserving of their bad reputations and murdered in all kinds of ways. Farmers, and their kids would stab them with pitchforks out of ignorance. I do not know as much about bats as I do wolves, but I can say that bats brought me great joy as a small child, wondering how they could “see” insects in the dark. I would lay on a blanket in the tall grass and watch the bats at dusk, before we ever even had a television, waiting for the stars to come out.
As for this sickness of mind, it is the world out of balance. Much can be learned from the Hopi prophecies. You may find some answers in ancient Hopi wisdom?
I appreciate your insightful comment.
Meegwetch (thank you), Richard. People should not fear bats. As with wolves, it is a matter of re-education. We are losing bats, bees and wolves and they are all so very important to having a healthy world to leave to future generations. We are losing so many creatures every day. It breaks my heart.
Things are quickening alright.
It must have been you that made me think of that word.
I did ask you once if you thought things were quickening! I am glad the word is catching.
It’s certainly a fitting term in this case.
The sports killing season of 2013 is upon us. In Montana alone “sportsmen” will kill around 19,000 antelope, 40,000 deer, 300 wolves, 1300 black bear, 200 bighorn sheep, 200 moose, 20,000 elk, then there are turkeys and an assortment of other birds to kill. It is sporting tradition. Wyoming will kill even more elk having had record years the past 10. The states of MT-WY-ID-WI will push wolf killing as far as they think they can get away with and not risk re-listing. Montana sells $19.00 wolf tags to kill 5 wolves.
Then there is USDA Wildlife Services who kill around 72,000 coyotes each year and around 28,000 other animals, a million animals a decade.
Then there are the poachers of Africa, and the sportsmen who go there to kill dwindling populations of elephants and rhinos and lions.
We, human animals, are over fishing the oceans and threatening sharks, whales, and Bluefin tuna and other marine life.
Then there are the slaughter houses which will kill a billion chickens world wide and millions of cattle, pigs, and sheep each year. Now conservative state legislatures are pushing every year, despite what the American people have opposed over and over, the opening of horse slaughter houses.
Animal shelters put down (kill) thousands of dogs and cats each year because there are too many and too few homes for them.
You would think that humans are primarily blood thirsty carnivores, something as scary as the worse aliens you can imagine, which we are.
I posted the above as a guest blog Roger.
No shit–humans are disgusting motherfuckers.
Very disturbing…
Very
Totally agree!
A WTF year I believe….
This week finding out that a Mexican female wolf was killed by a state agency, the first wolf to walk in Kentucky killed by a moronic hunter, then of course the 176 sheep depredation blamed on wolves when facts state that only 2 sheep were killed – the rest suffocated in a pileup but the state still went in and killed most of the pine creek pack. Oh – add to that 5 bear dogs killed by wolves (what the fuck are people doing hunting bears with dogs anyway!!!) – Its hard not to want to take up arms and even it up on behalf of wolves and wild things (half a joke, but it makes me so angry). We must keep up the fight and know that we fight for what’s right. The universe is surely on our side we just have to keep going until the tide turns and we are successful. Preserving the beautiful wild ones for the future.
Yes, those and many more add to What The Fuck Week, month, year…
To everyone here, we all are enraged at the mindless brutality turning our beautiful wild spaces into a virtual recreation of the ancient Roman circus, with the invention of digital photography for dummies and nearly realtime uploads. A psychopath’s dream come true.
I find it helpful to rescue and heal the victims, if I can. Anyone who has ever heard a wolf pup ‘scream’ in terror knows they do suffer PTSD. No animal should be allowed to be abused, pet or wild creature. The laws need to be changed ASAP and all wolves need to be protected. Coyote roundups need to be illegal. Trapping and snarring needs to stop now! And ‘I thought it was a coyote’ is an unacceptable excuse, period! Ignorance of the law doesn’t work in traffic court, why the hell is it acceptable in the murder of a critically endangered species? The political machine is broken. I need riders to share gas money to get to DC for the wolf rally! Sept. 7th. I’m leaving Maine on the 6th, camping out overnight and spending the day of the 7th advocating for wolf delisting. I’m going to do this on the cheap, all you need is part of the gas money. I will bring healthy food for all, no meat. Respond quickly, I have Mountain, 3 wolf moon t shirts for paying riders! Yeeha! Dress to impress!:-) bring guitars, we can sing around the campfire! Bring ambassador wolf dogs with proper tags and a seatbelt harness. No dough? It’s about wolves, not money. As long as we pool enough gas money, we are good to go! If you live in the city, with no car and it is near I-95, I will pick you up. Room for 6 riders. I’m in the phone book, so let’s go to DC and educate some politicians!
I tried the link to the FB page mentioned in the article, and it appears the page has been removed!
Good. We must have run him off;)
I tried it too. Been removed.
Good news.
Now he and his show need to be removed, along with Douche Dynasty and all the rest of that ilk.
Haha …Douche Dynasty that is a good one!
😉
Hi Jim,
I just saw this post. My friend (and fellow blogger) blueinthislight http://blueinthislight.wordpress.com/ has just landed his dream job of working for Bat World Sanctuary with Amanda Lollar and wrote about this very same story. http://batworld.org/bear-grylls-bat-killer/.
I had been meaning to blog about it, but now I don’t have to, because you already have. Amanda is doing some amazing work for bats — it would seem she is all they have. I have learned so much about bats, via my friend Mitch. Everything I thought I knew to be true about bats, was in fact false. I had no idea Bear Grylls was doing this to bats until Mitch brought it to my attention. What a real piece of shit that Grylls is. I’d like to stomp him out!
Anyway, if anyone is interested in learning more about bats and/or donating to BWS, please nav on over to: http://batworld.org/
🙂
Thanks for the bat links and info.
Reblogged this on Girl for Animal Liberation.
What the fuck did you reblog this for? Just kidding; thanks for passing it on;)
You scared me for a second… Ha-Ha!
To sign the petition http://www.change.org/petitions/the-discovery-channel-stop-showing-videos-of-bear-grylls-mutilating-killing-and-eating-innocent-animals?utm.
Thanks Nancy. Just so you know, I did imbed a link to the petition under the word, “petition.”
O fuck!
Hey, sorry if I confused anybody… I can’t go back and fix a typo, I sure hope Jim can or just remove that post? You all know by now I would not advocate for wolf delisting. I have had this tablet touchscreen issue before. The touchscreen is off center and the r and d letters get confused, even if I touch the correct spot! This really messes me up if I am meaning to type relisting of wolves and it comes out as delisting!
I just had to go back and fix it because it just happened again. WTF week for sure! Anyway, I feel really bad if anyone got the wrong idea, I assure you, I will always be on the side of wolves and other creatures!
That’s our Bear Grylls petition!
Our being Bat World Sanctuary, although we condemn his every killing, not just those of the bats.
Thank you so much for spreading it! It’s an honor to find it here, and in What the Fuck Week, no less. Girl for Animal Liberation introduced me to your work, and I’ve thought very highly of it for a long time now.
And I’m sorry, I just got excited for a moment there. I really do love the way you write. You’re very good at finding the absurdity of it all.
I’m glad you appreciate the writing and the absurdity of it all. Thank You for putting out the petition against the absurd bozo who dares to call himself “bear!”
Well it’s good to find people who see the absurdity too. Sometimes it feels like there’s only like twelve of us in the whole world. I can count the people in my real life who agree with me on these things on one hand. And not use my thumb.
And you’re right, he doesn’t deserve the nickname. An insult to bears everywhere. They’d never behave anywhere near as awfully.
Same here, that’s why I like to consider this part of my real life.
Jim, you seriously have the best blog I have ever been on! It’s kinda like hangin’ out with a bunch of Nader’s Raiders back in the old days! I have to behave myself when I visit other blogs because most of them just don’t get it. I’m probably gonna get reamed on a certain wolf blog for sugesting wolf haters who get caught poaching the few Yellowstone wolves left, need to get one of those new gov’t “Lobo-tomies” in exchange for all charges being dropped. That experimental surgery would pith his primative brain so he never again could feel the rush of excitement from killing a wolf or other:-) creature. I told them The lobotomies are real and happening again but I made up the rest from bits and pieces of A Clockwork Orange. 🙂 Just added in wolves because of the lobo in the word. It feels like home, here, no P.C. police when I feel like being funny. I am so lucky in RL, my son gets what I am talking about and he’s got Asperger’s and a genius IQ… but a great sense of humor.
I hope you don’t mind me hanging out here, it just feels like I have found a virtual home where I actually have to use my brain! It means a lot to me, as you know I am crippled by chronic painful diseases and on bad pain days, your blog helps me cope with the pain. I am very grateful for than and being around like-minded people.
Glad you’re enjoying the blog Melody. You’re always welcome here.
Thank’s Jim, it means a lot to me!
You’re welcome.
Hey Jim, things might be starting to turn a corner as far as WTF moves into September? Seems the Motor City Madman’s trophy wife got arrested in Dallas trying to bring a gun on an airplane! She says she forgot it was in her purse! Yeah and the check’s in the mail, too, lady!
Guns are heavy, especially when fully loaded. That would be like forgetting you had three rolls of quarters in a fanny pack. And isn’t the point of carrying a gun, uh, like knowing where the damn thing is in case of the odd chance of getting attacked by purse snatchers…oh wait, then they would be armed purse snatchers…? Game Over!
Reblogged this on Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting Blog.