Animal Planet, can’t you do any better?

So after I got back home from my hiking trip, I totally vegged out.  I’m recharging, right?  And that included some TV watching.  I have to say- Animal Planet, I like the concept of a channel about animals, but you are totally dropping the ball on quality. 

This show “Pet-O-Rama”, is the epitome of crap, I’m sorry.  And “Bad Dogs” that I’m watching now, well, the clips are kind of cute, but I have real issue with calling these “bad dogs.”  For example, in one clip, a man hold up his new pug puppy for the camera, as in ‘Hey mom! Look what I got!” The poor dog is obviously terrified to be held up in the air in an awkward position, and it starts to urinate.  The man yells “What the!” and drops the dog ON THE FLOOR, about five feet down.  My mouth fell open. The dog could have been seriously injured!  But no, it’s supposed to be funny…

And the rest of AP’s current offerings are kind of crap too.  Pit Boss? Cute idea, but can you say S-C-R-I-P-T-E-D?  I hope no one thinks that’s how a real-life rescue works…  Last Chance Highway is a little better, seems more realistic.  But as a show focused on transport rescue from the Southern US states to the North, they have NEVER mentioned or tried to refute the controversial nature of transport rescue.  River Monsters is about a guy who goes fishing, booorrrrring, I Shouldn’t Be Alive isn’t even about animals, and Dogs 101 is fun to watch, but they get a heck of a lot of stuff just plain wrong, and I worry about anyone who is basing their decision of what breed of dog to get based on it.

  

I confess that I enjoy “Confessions: Animal Hoarding.”  It is a pretty well made show, and much less overly-dramatic than the other type of show that deals with the same class of people, which is “Animal Cops” and it’s spinoffs. “Confessions” shows the hoarders as real people with feelings, and the (usually sad and dark) journeys they’ve taken to end up as the lady with 50 dogs in a trailer. 

I sometimes watch Whale Wars, but it gets tiring after a while- they chase the whaling boats around all day, and the next day, and the next day, and so on... Occasionally something actually happens.

   

AP is also showing the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, which I am looking forward to watching.  So why, why, why, if they can afford the rights to high-profile stuff like that, do they still make crap!?

Here’s a message, Animal Planet:  There is a REAL market for intelligent animal-focused content. Dog (and cat, bird, tiger, elephant, etc) lovers do not ALL have an IQ of 80, some of us are quite smart, actually, and if you continue to make biased, sensationalized, and just plain BAD TV, we will stop watching it.  (And while you're at it, can you make a website that doesn't crash my computer?)