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. Its just more bad influence for the millions of other people that are not on our side or are just neutral.

[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.

[WebbyD]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[iCandiBallPythons]

Discovery has a few dumb shows out as of late

[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.

[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!