# Site General > General Herp > Herp Broadcast >  Smashing a snake on "The Colony"

## redstormlax12

Well while im sitting here eating breakfast and watching TV I put on the discovery channel. The show that is on is "The Colony". Its another useless survivor show that is supposed to be a post apocolyptic scenario. There is a group of people trying to survive as if they were the last people on earth. 

Now to the snake smashing. A member of the group walked past a snake in the abandoned house they are living in and freaks out. He yells "there's a snake in here" and of course the dramatic music starts and along with the yelling of others. Well the people decide its venomous and could kill any one of them. Though its just a green water snake, that none of the people could identify. A couple of the men decided they would get a metal pole and a large branch. They both start to smash it. They flatten most of the body. 

After its dead, well who knows if it is truly dead, the people start to think how "it could of struck and killed any of us". Granted it is usually better to be safe than sorry, but in a situation like this where the people put the situation upon themselves, I do not believe any killing of wildlife is at all neccessary. 

This of course could of all been avoided with a little education, instead of irrational fears created by society over the years. Though I am not judging people being afraid of snakes. That is fine, we all hate something. But what we love is constantly bashed because others find it disgusting, unneccessary and just weird. 

It just realls irks me when I see things like this on TV. :Taz:  Its just more bad influence for the millions of other people that are not on our side or are just neutral.

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## WingedWolfPsion

They actually identified the snake as being a water snake, and harmless--the colonists simply didn't know this.

I believe they were attempting to illustrate how ignorance can lead to added stress in an environment of this type, as well as pointing out hazards many folks don't think of (such as an actual venomous snake).

I do not think the filmmakers could have easily intervened there without interfering with the entire experiment.  I was sad to see the snake killed needlessly...and they didn't even have the foresight to eat it.

I think they might have skipped over things if the colonists were beating a feral dog to death, though.  Of course, maybe I underestimate them...they might have handled it with a cutaway.

I love the show, though, it's fascinating to watch.

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## WebbyD

Season 1 was awesome. Season 2 is like watching an abortion...

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## Big Gunns

This is a prime example of how we as snake keepers(not BG) are hypocrites. Every time BG sees someone complain about somebody killing a snake(you wouldn't be mad if it was a rat) on TV or anywhere..... he always thinks how the people who love rats and rabbits feel that we feed them to our snakes. All BG is trying to say is the anger you felt toward those people on that show is the same anger people who love our feeders feel towards us. And we kill millions. Let's not all be hypocrites. BG understands where they are coming from.

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h00blah (07-31-2010),_mdjudson_ (08-01-2010),_Michelle.C_ (07-31-2010),MissDixie (07-31-2010),_Moofins07_ (08-01-2010),_Oxylepy_ (08-01-2010)

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## WingedWolfPsion

I thought it was a waste of life.  I understood why they did it, I wasn't bellyaching about that.  But I thought they were pretty dim for not eating it.

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## qiksilver

Although in a way I do agree... but as pet owners we are knowingly taking on the responsibility to provide an animal with what it needs.  And in taking on predators we acknowledge their need to kill other animals to survive.

I hate senseless killing in general, which it sounds like this was, which is much different than provide food for a fellow animal.  I honestly believe you're comparing apples to oranges, but I think I understand what you're getting at.




> This is a prime example of how we as snake keepers(not BG) are hypocrites. Every time BG sees someone complain about somebody killing a snake(you wouldn't be mad if it was a rat) on TV or anywhere..... he always thinks how the people who love rats and rabbits feel that we feed them to our snakes. All BG is trying to say is the anger you felt toward those people on that show is the same anger people who love our feeders feel towards us. And we kill millions. Let's not all be hypocrites. BG understands where they are coming from.

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## WingedWolfPsion

The colonists SINCERELY believed that this snake was venomous.  It was not simply the killing of a snake for the sake of killing--they honestly believed that it posed a real threat to their safety.

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## iCandiBallPythons

Discovery has a few dumb shows out as of late

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## Michelle.C

> This is a prime example of how we as snake keepers(not BG) are hypocrites. Every time BG sees someone complain about somebody killing a snake(you wouldn't be mad if it was a rat) on TV or anywhere..... he always thinks how the people who love rats and rabbits feel that we feed them to our snakes. All BG is trying to say is the anger you felt toward those people on that show is the same anger people who love our feeders feel towards us. And we kill millions. Let's not all be hypocrites. BG understands where they are coming from.


As someone who loves rats as well as snakes, I understand where you are coming from. But it seems to me that this was a complete waste of life. At least reptile hobbyist utilize the life they take. I do appreciate this empathic post though. It's nice to know that some people are thinking out of their own world.

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## ScubaRyan

All of the survival shows are fake, and none need to kill any animal in order to "survive" the "week" they're there. They can film in a couple days, but I'd bet they're all sitting in tents having some sort of canned food and not scrounging off animals/reptiles/plants. The only reason they do eat bugs/animals is to give some sort of survival skill to the public, but mainly for entertainment/shock factor.

Although I enjoy the majority of survival shows (Dual Survival, Man vs Wild, Suvivorman, The Colony) they really don't need to kill animals/reptiles as they aren't in a true survival situation. It is for the 'shock' factor and making people think: "is he really going to eat that? Oh wow he just did!" If any of them got attacked and hurt, or bitten by a venomous reptile, i'm sure they have anti-venom on hand (a lot of the things are presented to them to show what to do/how to do something), and a helicopter nearby in the event something happens. There is certainly risk in these types of show, but not the risk needing to survive off the animals that live there.

Shows that get good ratings because of what they're showing aren't going to change anytime soon though!

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## Big Gunns

> Although in a way I do agree... but as pet owners we are knowingly taking on the responsibility to provide an animal with what it needs.  And in taking on predators we acknowledge their need to kill other animals to survive.
> 
> I hate senseless killing in general, which it sounds like this was, which is much different than provide food for a fellow animal.  I honestly believe you're comparing apples to oranges, but I think I understand what you're getting at.


BG doesn't really think it's "apples to oranges", but at least you get BG's point. :Good Job: 




> The colonists SINCERELY believed that this snake was venomous.  It was not simply the killing of a snake for the sake of killing--they honestly believed that it posed a real threat to their safety.


So do you think every venomous snake that the public comes in contact with should be killed? 




> Discovery has a few dumb shows out as of late


A few? PFFTT>...




> As someone who loves rats as well as snakes, I understand where you are coming from. But it seems to me that this was a complete waste of life. At least reptile hobbyist utilize the life they take. I do appreciate this empathic post though. It's nice to know that some people are thinking out of their own world.


This is what BG does best. His ability to see the other persons side makes him the genius communicator he is. :Very Happy: 




> All of the survival shows are fake, and none need to kill any animal in order to "survive" the "week" they're there. They can film in a couple days, but I'd bet they're all sitting in tents having some sort of canned food and not scrounging off animals/reptiles/plants. The only reason they do eat bugs/animals is to give some sort of survival skill to the public, but mainly for entertainment/shock factor.
> 
> Although I enjoy the majority of survival shows (Dual Survival, Man vs Wild, Suvivorman, The Colony) they really don't need to kill animals/reptiles as they aren't in a true survival situation. It is for the 'shock' factor and making people think: "is he really going to eat that? Oh wow he just did!" If any of them got attacked and hurt, or bitten by a venomous reptile, i'm sure they have anti-venom on hand (a lot of the things are presented to them to show what to do/how to do something), and a helicopter nearby in the event something happens. There is certainly risk in these types of show, but not the risk needing to survive off the animals that live there.
> 
> Shows that get good ratings because of what they're showing aren't going to change anytime soon though!


Big Gunns has said this before, and he'll say it again. Yes they do need to kill the animals they encounter that they're going to eat. What do you expect them to do? Should they just say "there's a turtle over there...I could show you how to kill and eat it, but I'm gonna eat this snickers bar instead...all you viewers can figure out how to do it on your own". DUHHHHH. Sure it has some "shock value" to it, but it's a survival show....not a nature walk. BG honestly really has learned a thing or two from those shows...and we all know Big Gunns knows everything. :Very Happy: 

Now does BG hate to see them kill a reptile? Of course he does, but BG realizes that they can't do the show properly without killing the animals. As long as they're not endangered, BG is just gonna have to live with it. He doesn't like it, but he's not gonna be a hypocrite about it. He kills rats and mice all the time(kinda hates that also to be honest). :Sad:  It does bother BG sometimes when he's driving with a car full of feeders knowing they'll all be dead in hours. BG does have a heart.

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## Oxylepy

> This is a prime example of how we as snake keepers(not BG) are hypocrites. Every time BG sees someone complain about somebody killing a snake(you wouldn't be mad if it was a rat) on TV or anywhere..... he always thinks how the people who love rats and rabbits feel that we feed them to our snakes. All BG is trying to say is the anger you felt toward those people on that show is the same anger people who love our feeders feel towards us. And we kill millions. Let's not all be hypocrites. BG understands where they are coming from.


Thanks, BG. This is how i always feel. I mean it's a waste when it's done for television and give people the wrong idea (freaking anti-snake hysteria), however if you want to see something really hypocritical look at my topic on feeding snake eating snakes. ( http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=124974 )

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## hunter94

The show actually isn't pointless. They do it for mental studies and to see how the brain works in situations like this. I also saw the airing when it was new last Tuesday and I was pissed about the whole snake issue.

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## Moofins07

> This is a prime example of how we as snake keepers(not BG) are hypocrites. Every time BG sees someone complain about somebody killing a snake(you wouldn't be mad if it was a rat) on TV or anywhere..... he always thinks how the people who love rats and rabbits feel that we feed them to our snakes. All BG is trying to say is the anger you felt toward those people on that show is the same anger people who love our feeders feel towards us. And we kill millions. Let's not all be hypocrites. BG understands where they are coming from.


I agree with you to an extent, and understand where small-mammal lovers are coming from, but in this situation, they killed the snake out of fear and hate. We don't feed mice, rats, and rabbits to our snakes out of fear and hate, we do it out of necessity. Do people kill snakes out of necessity now?

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## Big Gunns

> I agree with you to an extent, and understand where small-mammal lovers are coming from, but in this situation, they killed the snake out of fear and hate. We don't feed mice, rats, and rabbits to our snakes out of fear and hate, we do it out of necessity. Do people kill snakes out of necessity now?



BG hears yah, but if they killed a rat nobody on this forum would say a word.

All BG is trying to point out is we(reptile keepers) only complain when it's a reptile. BG doubts any of us(reptile keepers) are on some rat forum complaining when they kill a rat on a show.

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## Raptor

To be honest, I don't complain when someone kills a snake (although, I will gripe if it's a harmless one. Less griping if it's venomous due to the goats being overly curious critters and yes, I can identify the local snakes). My only complaint is that they didn't skin the snake, gut it, and roast it over a fire. When you're in a survival situation, you kill it, you eat it. Else it's just wasteful.

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## MissLeMew

> Season 1 was awesome. Season 2 is like watching an abortion...


 :ROFL:

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## hunter94

> To be honest, I don't complain when someone kills a snake (although, I will gripe if it's a harmless one. Less griping if it's venomous due to the goats being overly curious critters and yes, I can identify the local snakes). My only complaint is that they didn't skin the snake, gut it, and roast it over a fire. When you're in a survival situation, you kill it, you eat it. Else it's just wasteful.


Yea, I agree. Thats exactly what I said when I saw them throw it out.  :Rolleyes2:

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## WingedWolfPsion

> So do you think every venomous snake that the public comes in contact with should be killed?


How does that follow?
I would not kill a venomous snake on my own property, I would relocate it.

However, this is because I know that 5 minutes from my home, there is an emergency room, and it stocks (or has ready access to) anti-venon for all of the venomous snake species likely to be encountered locally.

In a survival situation, where most of the population was wiped out by a super flu bug, and I'm scraping just to get clean water...you had better believe I would kill a venomous snake I found near my living area.  I would also eat it, but the killing would definitely be for protection as much as food.  Any accidental bite under those circumstances could easily prove deadly--from complications if not from the bite itself!  Sad as I might be, I would still do it.

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## AkHerps

I'm sad when they kill rats...T_T

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## SpartaDog

> BG hears yah, but if they killed a rat nobody on this forum would say a word.


I would.

I hate when they kill any animal just for entertainment. To me it's almost the same as dog fighting. Sure, these shows teach you what to do in these situations, but dog fighting, in an abstract way, teaches you about dog psychology and criminal subculture. I know it's not quite the same, but...

I think we need a show to tell the public how to identify snakes and how to handle them. It doesn't take all that much thought to figure out how to kill and eat a snake. I miss Steve Irwin. :/

Bottom line, it was an unnecessary and definitely wasteful death. At least feed it to a dog or something...

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## SpartaDog

Edit: Oops, hit the quote button instead of the edit.

I was going to say this: 



> BG hears yah, but if they killed a rat nobody on this forum would say a word.


I would. And if you're going to call someone a hypocrite, make it all those people who think it's fine to air this but unacceptable to air the killing of a stray dog or cat.

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## BabysMomma

I haven't seen Survivor in years, but from what I remember they were all so starved that they would eat anything they could catch. I think they may have trapped and eaten a few snakes, I know they were eating any kind of sea creature they could catch and it was a big deal whenever they got a decent size animal.

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