The good and bad of Animal Planet

[newchickgal]

I usually really enjoy the programs on AP but last night when we were surfing through the channels we stopped as there was the program was about zebras. The photographer was telling about how they can crowd around a drinking hole and they will push and shove each other for space. Ok, that's interesting and so we watched. There was one zebra relaxing on the ground and another started hitting him in the head with his hind hoofs, after a couple of blows and we realized the poor guy was dying from it, we quickly changed channels. That was hard to watch. And yet, we watch other programs of hunting animals taking down a kill. I'm still trying to put all of this in perspective. I guess it's because the zebra never had a chance, I don't know, just sorting all of this out.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Usually the narrator is reading a script written by someone who has never heard of a wild animal. I'm ALWAYS arguing with my T.V.

 

[Chickengal505]

You'd be surprised if you meet the owner or some of the writers. I love AP but most of the shows just want views.

 

[newchickgal]

The narrator was the animal photographer who filmed the episode about zebras. It was the scene that got to me, not really what was being said. I know that death is part of life, it's just that this one animal never had a chance to get out of the way. I do like AP, just sometimes it's a bit hard to watch the harsh reality of wild animals.

 

[desertdarlene]

I don't blame you for turning the channel, that's the good thing about watching it on TV.


One thing I've noticed and heard, too, from other nature photographers, is that what you see on the screen isn't always exactly what happened. Sometimes, they don't film the whole story and may actually intervene, (in this case, they may have thought of a way to help, but decided against it). Most photographers won't intervene if the animal is hurt or killed in it's natural settings in a natural way (such as when a carnivore is trying to feed itself with its natural prey). Or, they won't intervene if they feel that it would put another animal (or person) in harms way.

 

[redhen]

mr. birdaholic :

Usually the narrator is reading a script written by someone who has never heard of a wild animal. I'm ALWAYS arguing with my T.V.

They have meds for that, ya know..​

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I've noticed that over the years the nature shows have become more violent and bloody, just like the fictional shows. It makes me watch fewer of those shows. I'm not into watching shows with camera close-ups of surgery, either. You know, it's just not relaxing or entertaining for me, personally. If I want to be informed, I'll just go to the internet. It's got more on it and I don't have to spend all that time avoiding or suffering through the commercials.

Lots of things are real, but it doesn't mean I want to watch it as entertainment.

 

[Ema]

I was watching AP last night and they had one about 3 herds of elephants. It was hard watching a young elephant starve to death because its mother was poached and the grandmother didn't have enough milk to feed the little guy. though she tried and tried to get him to walk the hundreds of miles to a new feeding area with a watering hole so she could eat and produce milk, she didn't give up on him until he died, you could easily see all his bones and it was heart wrenching watching him so weak to stand, actually get up and just place his head against his grandmother as if begging her for food and comfort.

Some shows are hard to watch, sadly that is just the cycle of our animal kingdom. if its hard for us to watch I can only imagine how hard it must be for the camera crew and the field men/women watching it first hand. As they must abide by the rules of no interference. Not a line of work I could do, I could never watch an animal starve no matter the consequences.

 

[redhen]

One of my youngest memories was watching one of those National Geographic type shows(maybe Animal Kingdom?),..(Waaay before Animal Planet was around...)..
And i remember seeing a lion killing a young gazelle...holding it by the throat until it died, and it was kicking its legs and trying to live.. ..
I was BAWLING.. toally distraut over it..and i was just a very young kid.

I remember my father coming in the room and seeing me bawling and asking me what was the matter with me...
Then he explained how the kitty has to eat too... thats its very hungry... etc..etc.. , so then i felt bad for the cat too..

..

Now i'm like,... its nature..its life... i eat meat, somethings gotta die.

Sometimes those types of shows still bug me... like when they are filming and come upon an animal suffering (from sickness or something), and they dont kill it to put it out of its misery. Gahh!... That always irks me, cause i know they have guns on them and could end its suffering.