My mother watches a lot of nature shows, but when it comes time for the pride of lions to drag down a wildebeest, or for the orca to snatch up a penguin, she cringes and almost invariably fast forwards or changes the channel. I was wondering how common this type of thing is.
Personally, I sometimes find the kills unpleasant to watch – particularly if the prey animal is the show’s de facto protagonist, which we’ve been following for several minutes or more – but I hardly ever change the channel.
I voted the first option-I skip them. I know everyone’s gotta eat and I have no problem with that, I just don’t want to see the terror on their faces or the dying gasps of the prey. At least it’s usually pretty quick.
And when I saw the title, I thought, “I must vote no.” But the question is phrased differently, so I voted yes. I’m happy I read it carefully, or I would have voted incorrectly!
The phrase “nature red in tooth and claw” is very appropriate and watching the kills makes me remember that meat doesn’t come wrapped in plastic at the grocery store. I’ve seen kills live and in person at Yellowstone and in Alaska…it’s even more intense that way, trust me.
I wish more of us had that perspective. I got kind of hooked on Dsicovery’s outdoorsy shows like Yukon Men and the other Alaska show they have. When I started, I was pretty averse to the hunting, but I came to realize it’s a much more honest way of acquiring food. It’s certainly less cruel than subjecting cows to slaughterhouses and chickens to crowded conditions, and better for the environment than manure pools.
When an animal (especially a baby) dies from exposure or neglect, that is much more difficult to watch than a hunt. Both are natural and inevitable parts of life in the wild, but at least the hunt involves very little suffering (though obviously significant panic) but to see an animal slowly starve or submit to a fatal injury, that’s more difficult for me to watch.
Nature Kills (croc/wildebeest, cat/tweetybird, et. al.) don’t bother me at all, with extremely rare exceptions. Worth mentioning that this is rather out of character for me.
“Other” because:
Mrs. Cretin, a hardcore lover of essentialy all animal life, can’t bear to watch Critter A killing/fighting/eating Critter B. It’s profoundly upsetting for her. Nothing religious or woo about her- she just loves animals.
when its an animal on animal kill, I sing “The Circle of Life” all the while holding my Yorkie up in the air like Rafiki held up Simba in The Lion King.