Boycott Animal Planet

I joined and agree with the garbage we are seeing on T.V. as so called reality:confused:

Mr. Smith makes some good points but the truth is as long as people want to watch this garbage they will keep showing it.

It is sad that shock value programing has replaced the truth or any sense of integrity. It seems the truth is irrelevant to Animal Planet because people would rather watch a train wreck than a happy or positive reality program. This unfortunately is a sad state of affairs and the ugly reality of todays TV audience. I remember when MTV and VH1 actually played music. What a concept!

And I thought it couldn't get worse than the Jerry Springer type shows, guess again:(

I will be writing them a letter to ask them when they decided to change from animal planet to animal feces?

what a shame that animal planet was once about the animals now there persuaded like so many people by cash money to corrupt there opportunity to educate and instead corrupting there name and company.

lance

+1

I joined as soon as I saw the link. I hope it gets big enough to do some good :gj:

Come on everybody, sign up and be heard, this is the stuff that gives politicians more fuel.

I know I'm bumping this up from way down, but I wanted to post this link:

http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations

It's the online form for sending in comments to Animal Planet/Discovery Channel on their website - apparently they read it since it says they try to reply within a week. I sent them a comment stating I would not be watching Animal Planet anymore and that programs such as Fatal Attractions, Maneaters, Killer Aliens, etc. were the reason. Ya'll can do the same! (Interestingly, on the part where you choose which show you're commenting on, Fatal Attractions isn't even an option :mad: I had to pick another show that p*sses me off...sadly, not hard to do.)

Thanks for posting that link, I did it immediately. I used part of the letter provided from USARK by ER12, and part of my own:

While I chose Untamed and Uncut, the shows I would really like this to apply to are Fatal Attractions, Killer Aliens, and Maneaters, among others, none of which were available as options. Animal Planet seems to be attacking the reptile and exotic animal industries in an extremely misleading and untruthful way. As a member of this community I am deeply saddened and offended by the gross mis-characterizations of mental illness and irresponsibility of the members of my community. No community or group of like-minded individuals are without their "black eye", but to insinuate and even downright state that the entire community is similar to the outliers is irresponsible and borders on libelous. Therefore, I will not support Animal Planet by watching their programming or support the companies who advertise on Animal Planet until the programming is pulled, or at least becomes balanced and truthful. As a faithful viewer since my earliest years, I am deeply saddened that your programming has turned to sensationalism and fear mongering, rather than focusing on education and conservation to attract viewers. I will check your programming regularly, and will hope for the day when I can continue watching the good, wholesome shows I grew up with. Thank you, Elizabeth Keyes

I was not happy that the programming I wanted to comment on was not available as an option. Purposeful? Maybe.

Thanks for posting. I passed it all on to myspace via blog/bulletin.

Good news--for those of you who found it hard to give up nature programming and animal documentaries (which rarely appear on Animal Planet any longer anyhow), there is a NEW CHANNEL.

Nat Geo Wild is now up and running in the US. Cox just picked it up here, and it's replaced Fox Reality channel.

The programming lineup looks very acceptable. I see some good wildlife documentaries, a few perky shows that feel like they're aimed at children with their tone, but have truly interesting information about unusual species in them, and some semi-silly stuff like 'Be The Creature'. All in all, not so bad, and I found plenty to watch. A bit repetitive with the lineup, though.

Now it's painless to boycott Animal Planet.

I joined the FB group (a rarity to say the least) and then emailed them immediately. There was an episode of Monster Quest about Florida Pythons that had me literally yelling at the t.v. I then banned anymore Discovery Channel (or AP, TLC, or History Channel) shows for my son. I recommend watching anything made by the BBC as they still maintain the integrity of documentaries.

I totally agree...AP is not what it use to be at all. My son and I watched Killer Aliens last night while laying in bed. Mainly because I wanted to show him not everything you see is true. Actually it worked really well...he is 9 and I swear he knew more than most of what was being shown...lol. There were times he was yelling at the tv. lol. The night before we watched a part of a show about a woman that had chimps...did not get to the end but I assume that it attacked. Again my idea worked....he talked about human error with different animals..yada yada....he was also talking about some of the things they talked about with pythons and he was saying...no..thats not right..its like this right mommy.....etc. I was pretty proud of smart lil 9 yr old animal hugger!! ;)

I guess all in all I don't want to shield him from things like this.........I want him to watch and speak up....write letters in regards to what they are doing. Become active in fighting for what he believes and to understand...that not everyone tells you the truth...do your own research. That is such a big lesson for a child to learn. Who knows....maybe when he grows up...he will be fighting for our rights as exotic pet owners...:D

I understand the show on chimps--honestly, some people think that they can dress them up and treat them like mentally slow human beings. Chimpanzees are almost as smart as humans (smarter in an area or two), but they don't have impulse control, and their emotional level is more like that of a 2 year old. They're terrifically aggressive, violent folks. Since they can bend us in half and shoot us like a rubberband, there is just no situation where hanging out with one is a safe thing to do. One mood swing, and you're bug splat. They might feel sorry about it later, but that won't uncrack your ribs. lol

But chimps are homonids--they are actually capable of developing personal hatreds, holding a grudge, carrying out and executing plans for vengeance, and being devious. There's no way to keep an animal like that in captivity, anymore than you would keep a human in captivity -- because it's not 'captivity' -- it's prison, and they know it. The main difference is, when your teenager gets mad, doors get slammed. When a teen chimp gets mad, fingers get severed.

There is no good answer as to how chimps should be treated in captivity, apart from "with solid bars between you and them, and full acknowledgment of the fact that they need the same mental stimulation that children do". It's not ethical to keep them captive at all, but it's also not optional. If they're going to survive as a species, we have to. They simply are not safe in their native habitat. Kudos to Spain for taking the first step in granting them special status, hopefully other countries will follow suit.

The show was sensationalistic, but in that one case, I think people did need to see why a chimp is not a 'pet'. A chimp is an angry furry little person who can break you in half. Not a human person...but nevertheless, a person. You can't pretend they're like big cats, or wolves, or bears. Assuming that will get you killed.