Herp Digest letter campaign

Via Herp Digest:

Letter from reader Ross Popeone on Discovery Channel Show. Proposing letter writing campaign to Discovery Channel

Subject: Comments on 'Hippo Island', Dual Survival

Mr. Lundin and Mr. Canterbury, (abodude@codylundin.com)


I am writing regarding the episode of your show 'Dual Survival' entitled 'Hippo Island'. Specifically, I am writing to address the capture, killing and consumption of a Leopard Tortoise (Stigmochelys (geochelone) pardalis babcocki), incorrectly identified by Mr. Canterbury as an 'African Spurred Tortoise'. This species, while not currently listed on the IUCN's 'Red List' of endangered species is, none the less, threatened throughout its range by habitat destruction, collection for the Asian and European pet trade (import into the US has been banned), and yes, being eaten by both indigenous and non-indigenous people. Another African tortoise species, the Madagascar Radiated Tortoise, has gone in less than two decades from being 'as numerous as the stars' to critically endangered as a result of being eaten by the Malagasy people. Just because the locals do it does not make it environmentally responsible, and it does not make it a responsible or appropriate thing for!
you to do. The animal that you killed and ate was likely fifteen years old and had survived literally one in a thousand odds to reach that age, only to be eaten by the two of you to make television. I hope that you are both properly ashamed of yourselves.

I am particularly disgusted with you, Mr. Lundin. Mr. Canterbury, with his Ted Nugent-esque 'bag it, burn it and eat it' television persona, can almost be forgiven for his incredible lack of sensitivity to issues of environmental concern, but you Mr. Lundin, with your espoused close to the earth lifestyle and love of your 'mother desert', should certainly know better. Do you allow, or even encourage, your survival students to eat the Desert Tortoises and other endangered species that inhabit your usual stomping grounds in Arizona? You present yourself as an almost shaman-like teacher of harmony with the natural world, but on 'Hippo Island' both you and Mr. Canterbury utterly failed to even mention that killing and eating a slow-to-mature, threatened species should be an act of last resort. Instead, you made this act seem completely devoid of environmental or moral significance.

Please understand that I am not an 'eco-fanatic' of some sort. I eat meat, own firearms and have killed and eaten animals, and understand that true survival situations sometimes require extreme measures. I am also not naïve as to the requirement to 'push the envelope' when producing television (hence Mr. Canterbury's recent self-mutilation and wound cauterization with black powder), but killing and eating a CITIES Appendix II species, with a twenty-plus year maturation to reproductive age/size, for the sake of a television show, is irresponsible and reprehensible.

I am reminded of the actions of one of your predecessors in survival-related television, Les Stroud of 'Survivorman'. In the course of filming his show, Les would sometimes come across an animal, sometimes an environmentally sensitive species, sometimes not, and say, "if this were a real survival situation, I'd have to eat this animal, but it isn't, so I'm letting it go'. The two of you might learn something from Mr. Stroud. However dramatic the scenarios presented on your show may be, they are not true 'survival situations'. Could you not have asked one of the camera crew for a bite of his/her sandwich, and let a rare animal carry on with its long life and reproductive potential? Again, I hope that both of you are embarrassed and ashamed of what you've become in the interest of entertainment. Needless to say, I will no longer be counted amongst the viewers of your ridiculous show.

Sincerely,
Ross Popenoe

Mr. Popenoe suggests sending emails of protest to the above and writing letter of protests to the head of Discovery Channels

David Zaslav,
President and CEO, Discovery Communications
8516 Georgia Avenue
Silver Springs MD 20910

Why? Being the Discovery Channel, this episode will rerun at least once a day in perpetuity. Discovery needs to acknowledge its corporate responsibility for ethical behavior toward the natural environment that they rely on for so much of their programming.