Tag Archives: reality t.v.

Animal Planet falsely portrays wolves as killers “who threaten us as never before”

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You can leave a comment for Animal Planet at this number  1-571-262-4899 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-571-262-4899 FREE  end_of_the_skype_highlighting – it’s the best way to do so – thank you!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/animal-emotions/201405/wolves-have-razor-sharp-teeth-and-hear-your-beating-heart

Blood sells but it shouldn’t

I’ve written many essays about how media (print and film) often offers sensationalist and thoroughly misleading stories about various nonhuman animals (animals). Now, Animal Planet is guilty of putting forth sensationalist lies about wolves. Concerning gray wolves, Brooks Fahy, Executive Director of Predator Defense, alerted that they’ve recently written: “Razor sharp teeth, killer instincts, and senses so precise they hear your beating heart, and your fear. They’re on the hunt, and now with numbers growing out of control, they’re threatening humans like never before.”

These lies — there have been only two verified accounts of wolves killing humans — are to publicize Anmal Planet’s series called Monster Week and their episode titled “Man-Eating Super Wolves.”

As research is anthrozoology has clearly shown, our relationship with other animals is a complex and challenging affair and the least we should expect — and demand — is that media represent animals as they really are, not as some imagine them to be. And, surely, misleading advertisements and stories about animals should not be used to make money or to induce fear when, indeed, existing data show that they are not dangerous at all. Shame on Animal Planet. Blood and lies should not sell.

PLEASE CONTACT ANIMAL PLANET – to protest their reprehensible misrepresentation of wolves and other animals and please find something else to do when these programs air. THIS IS HORRIFIC AND MISLEADING HYPE!

Duck Dynasty Dillweed Wants to Go Duck Hunting With Obama

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Go ahead and read about it if you want…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/willie-robertson-barack-obama_n_5028500.html

I can’t stand to reading about these Duck Dynasty dweebs any more than I can stand seeing the likes of Ted Nugent; or hearing Sarah Palin’s words of wisdom.

Better yet, why not re-read one of these EtBG classics:

https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/duck-dynastys-evil-is-spreading/

https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/dont-miss-the-premier-episode-of-black-sheep-robertson-revenge-of-the-ducks/

All I can say is, Obama better not take him up on it.

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The Guns of Mid-Winter

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When I wrote my book, Exposing the Big Game, its subtitle, Living Targets of a Dying Sport, was appropriate. But like so many things in this rapidly changing world, by the time the book came out, that subtitle was becoming obsolete. Now, in the second decade of the 21st century, the sport of blasting birds, murdering deer, culling coyotes and plunking at prairie dogs—in a word, hunting—is seeing a seemingly inexplicable resurgence.

Lately we’re seeing longer hunting seasons on everything from elk to geese to wolves, with more new or expanded “specialty” hunts like archery, crossbow, spear (and probably soon, poison blow gun) in states across the country, than at any time in recent memory. Meanwhile, more Americans are taking up arms against the animals and wearing so much camo—the full-time fashion statement of the cruel and unusual—that it’s starting to look ordinary and even, yuppified.

So, when did cruel become the new cool and evil the new everyday? Are the recruiting efforts of the Safari Club and the NRA finally striking a cord? Did the staged “reality” show “Survivor” lead to the absurdly popular thespian cable spin-offs like, “Call of the Wildman,” “Duck Dynasty” and a nasty host of others? Is “art” imitating life, or is life imitating “art?” Did the author of the Time Magazine article, “America’s Pest Problem: It’s Time to Cull the Herd,” ratchet up the call for even more animal extermination?

Whatever the reason, I don’t remember ever hearing so many shotguns and rifles blasting away during the last week of January. By the sound of the gunfire, coupled with the unseasonably dry and warm weather here in the Pacific Northwest, you’d swear it was early autumn.

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2014. All Rights Reserved

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2014. All Rights Reserved

Call OFF the “Wild”man

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Drugs, Death, Neglect: Behind the Scenes at Animal Planet

Mother Jones’ exclusive investigation reveals how animals suffer on the network’s top reality show.

By the time three orphaned raccoons arrived for emergency care at the Kentucky Wildlife Center in April 2012, “they were emaciated,” says Karen Bailey, who runs the nonprofit rehab clinic set in the sunny thoroughbred country just outside of Georgetown, in central Kentucky. “They were almost dead.”

Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/01/animal-abuse-drugs-call-of-the-wildman-animal-planet

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Did Your Tax Dollars Pay to Hunt Down That Cow?

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Hawaii Monitor: Did Your Tax Dollars Pay to Hunt Down That Cow?

By  Ian Lind                 12/04/2013

State investigators are probing whether the History channel’s “American Jungle” violated state rules and regulations while filming. For example,  the episodes broadcast so far have included scenes of night hunting, which is prohibited by state law, and hunting down a cow with spears and dogs, although cattle “are illegal to hunt without a special feral cattle control permit” issued by the state.

Full Story: http://www.civilbeat.com/posts/2013/12/04/20566-hawaii-monitor-did-your-tax-dollars-pay-to-hunt-down-that-cow/

NBC Sports Network Cancels NRA-Sponsored Elephant Hunting Show After Host Compares Critics To Hitler

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[Interesting that the network cancelled the show because the host dared to mention Hitler, not because he shot an elephant twice in the face and then celebrated its death over champagne… Why he thinks we only care about elephants and not the hunting of ducks, deer, rabbits, etc. is beyond me. Not all anti-hunters are “animal racists,” as he put it, or species favoritists, as I call it. Many of us don’t want to see the hunting of any non-human animals.]

 September 29, 2013  1:41 PM EDT ››› SOPHIA TESFAYE

Photo by Lord Mountbatten

NBC Sports Network has announced that it has canceled the hunting show Under Wild Skies after host Tony Makris compared critics to Hitler.

Controversy began after the show aired an episode in which an elephant was shot in the face twice by host Makris. Makris, who has longstanding ties to the NRA, celebrated the killing of the elephant with a bottle of champagne.

Following days of outrage and a petition calling for NBC to cancel the show, Makris took to NRA News on September 26 to respond to critics by claiming they advocated for a form of “animal racism.” Makris said the following about critics who argued that elephants not be targeted:

MAKRIS: The nice ones will come up and go, you shoot elephant? Why? And I said well, the short answer is because hungry people eat them and because I’m a hunter. You know, I’m not an elephant hunter. I’m a hunter. I hunt all things. And they go, well nobody should shoot an elephant. I said, why? And they go they’re so big and kind and gentle and smart and I said, okay, let me ask you a question. Should I be able to shoot birds? Well, I guess that’s okay. Ducks? Yeah. Pigeons? Oh, they’re flying rats, okay. Rabbits? Well rabbits are cute. But yea. Squirrels? That’s nothing but a rat with a tail — with a fuzzy tail. And I said, well deer eat all my mother’s roses in Long Island and I go– so I can shoot all of those, but not an elephant? No. Do you realize that if you subscribe to that philosophy you are committing a very unique form of animal racism?

CAM EDWARDS, HOST: [laughter]

MAKRIS: And now they’re shocked. And they said but they’re so big and special and they’re smarter. And I went, you know, Hitler would have said the same thing.

On September 28, NBC Sports Network announced in a statement to Deadspin that Under Wild Skies has been canceled due to Makris’ comments:

Under Wild Skies will no longer air on NBC Sports Sports Network due to the program’s close association with its host, whose recent comments comparing his critics to Hitler are outrageous and unacceptable. NBCSN will continue to air all of our other quality outdoor programming.

I’m Not one of those Duck Dynasty Douchebags

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Make no mistake; though my last name is Robertson, I’m no relation to those imposters from that stupid “reality” TV show, “Duck Dynasty” whose ugly mugs grace the front of a new line of T-shirts for sale at Wal Mart.

How do I know they’re ugly when I don’t get cable and have only seen their show once, for less than a minute? It’s true you can’t really tell what they look like under all that facial hair, but like I said, I saw their show once—for almost a minute. That’s all it took to see how ugly they are on the inside.

Before I realized what I’d stumbled upon and could flip the channel away from the enticing ignorance, I was forced to endure a tactless, feeble joke about roadkill and the approving chortles that followed.

The attitude toward wildlife exhibited by the “cast” of Douche Dynasty is an insult to the Robertson’s good name and a blasphemy to ducks and geese everywhere.

My great grandfather didn’t immigrate here from Scotland only to have the Robertson name sullied by a bunch of celebrity-wanna-bes or ZZ Top impersonators, sans the fuzzy guitars.

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Welcome to “What the Fuck Week”

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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

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Why Are TV Networks Airing Reality Shows That Glorify Stupidity And Cruelty To Animals?

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Where I live we don’t get television reception, so my viewing time is spent the old fashioned way: watching DVDs from Netflix. On those occasions when I find myself flipping channels somewhere that has cable, the rapidly-spreading spate of “reality” wildlife blow up tv t-shirtsnuff shows gets me so worked-up I feel like pulling a John Denver and blowing up the TV. But that would do little to slow the scourge of brainless, conscienceless drivel plaguing our society like a pandemic super-bug.

Clearly, cooler heads than mine are needed to combat this ever-growing menace. Therefore I hereby relinquish the pulpit (temporarily) and turn it over to Justin Forte, who, ever since nimrod networks started cropping up across the cable TV wasteland, has been asking the question…

Why Are T.V. Networks Airing Reality Shows That Glorify Stupidity And Cruelty To Animals?

Guest Rant by Justin Forte

What is it with television networks showing these stupid reality shows about bumpkins and glorifying killing and exploiting wild animals lately? It is beyond disgusting! All you see any more on most networks is one brain-dead reality show after another! Networks like Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC, and The History Channel are supposed to show programs that raise IQ levels not lower them! All you see on these networks and several other TV networks anymore are garbage shows that glorify trapping, torturing, and killing wildlife for profit and entertainment!

If it isn’t that, the networks show other reality shows of people acting like brain-dead yuppie idiots or people craving attention for doing ordinary stuff that other people do all the time that they think they should be on TV and get a medal for doing! WTF?

It is really sad, disgusting, and disturbing that the media has gone so low and is force feeding this garbage to the masses, and our society is suffering for it! Personally, I would love to see a social study experiment conducted to show the negative effects these reality shows are having on our society. I think these brain-dead reality shows glorifying animal killing and stupidity is dumbing down the masses and I think it is high time we stand up to the networks airing this garbage before they turn us all into brain-dead idiots and zombies from all this lousy programming they keep airing!

One of the best things we can do to put an end to these lousy reality shows that glorify animal killing and stupidity is to start complaining to these networks by calling, emailing, and sending letters of outrage over their programming. Another is to boycott the networks that show them. Cut the networks off from their ratings and they will begin to lose money, then we will be able to force them to bring back intelligent programming and entertainment like they used to show before they started showing the garbage they are showing now.

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