Welcome to my blog!

The following essay came to me via a listserve. I found Dr. Jonkel's opinion harsh, however there is a lot of truth to it. I beleive that both Treadwell and Irwin had their heart in the right place. Unfortunatley their egos lead them to their ultimate destiny. How do we harass wildlife of all sizes and species? These guys did it publicly but what about that bird you spooked trying to get a better look? I am a writer and a photographer as well as a naturalist. I have crossed the line a few times and feel badly when I do. I was also an active environmental and animal rights activist. I believe and teach people that harming other living things for fun and profit is wrong and unethical. What about radio-collaring every last wild wolf or other critter just trying to survive? How about swimming with the dolphins- whether they want to or not? I have passed up many potentially great photos because I did not want to disturb the critter (I use that excuse for the crummy photos too : ).) What right do we have to constantly harass our fellow nations, as Henry Beston refers to them? Isn't it enough that we destroy their homes everyday? That we kill them for their heads and hides or torture them to prove some chemical won't hurt us? Gandhi once said that you can tell the moralness of a society by how it treats its animals. Where do we stand? where do you stand?


September 25, 2006

"People of the Croc Hunter Ilk are Worse Than the Most Bloodthirsty Slob
Hunter"
Save a Grizzly, Visit a Library
By Dr. CHARLES JONKEL

The mass media, wildlife film industry, wildlife filmmakers, Hollywood
celebrities and wildlife agencies need a good dressing down. The
proliferation of "el cheapo," entertainment-oriented wildlife films causes
drastic impacts on wildlife species worldwide. As humans become ever more
oriented to human creations, totally urban lifestyles, glitz and glitter,
personalities, high-speed everything, oddball "moments," self-centered
blogs, instant wealth at anything's expense, frivolous religion and
politics, and endless/meaningless drivel and marketing, wild animals suffer.

So the Croc Hunter was done in by a stingray and Timothy Treadwell by a
brown bear. In both cases they earned their own demise, fooling with nature,
doing goofy things with large and formidable animals better left alone.

Steve Irwin's stupid behaviors with animals ­ teasing them, getting too
close, goading them into attacks ­ not only teaches bad value and
interactions relative to wildlife, but will be copied by thousands of other
airheads for decades to come and has set ever lower standards for the
media-an industry which constantly exploits wildlife with quick-and-dirty
films, film clips, and wildlife "news" focused on the trivial.

For 29 years I have rallied against such wildlife pornography. I created the
International Wildlife Film Festival to set high standards and to promote
the production of high-quality wildlife films. Even before IWFF, I
recognized that bears (in particular) were vulnerable to excessive and
dramatized reporting and human interest. I started early on (the early
1960s) to teach not exploiting bear "charisma" for profit and gain, or to
enhance one's ego. I have always used bears as a medium to teach and
communicate about science and nature, but in ways not detrimental to the
bears.

Likewise, for decades I have been trying to encourage wildlife agencies,
wildlife researchers, managers, law enforcement people, and university-level
wildlife departments to deal with extensive wildlife exploitation within the
mass media, the wildlife film industry, and wildlife film marketing.
Professionals, well aware of the terrible impacts on wildlife by market
hunters early in the 1960s, have steadfastly remained in denial about
wildlife in the wildlife film marketplace. Even today, almost no wildlife
management, research, or law enforcement is practiced on, focused on, or
taught about the enormous, deleterious effects of bad wildlife filmmaking,
distribution, marketing or screening.

I often note that hunters, fishermen and trappers are constantly controlled,
regulated, held to high sportsman standards and pursued for violations. The
typical hunter has a wad of papers about 200 pages long in his or her pocket
in order to "stay legal," to guide on bag limits, seasons, hunting times,
sex and age, closed or open areas, care of the meat, caliber of the rifle or
type of shot used, etc. In the meantime, those same agencies encourage and
aid countless filmmakers, camera crews, photographers, editors, writers, and
whatever to go out and do whatever they want, when they want and where they
want. Staff biologists are not encouraged to monitor, evaluate and speak out
on, or control, wildlife productions. The content is basically considered
entertainment for in the evening, not a wildlife professional's
responsibility. Treadwell, for example, was allowed to do many things
illegal for others to do.

Worse, perhaps, the needed standards, ethical evaluations, impacts on
wildlife and actions needed are not included in wildlife textbooks or
classrooms. The whole matter is studiously ignored, as not important in the
profession of wildlife biology, despite the 29 years that IWFF and the Great
Bear Foundation have called for action. "Poachers with a camera" still
mostly write their own rules. People like Irwin and Treadwell still do what
they damn well please with animals-countless actions that a hunter would be
fined and jailed for. Star-struck is for kids, not wildlife professionals.
Filmmaking should not be an allowable way to exploit wildlife for money and
fame. The National Geographic Society and the Discovery Channel and all of
their defenders should hang their heads in shame for promoting stupid TV
actions over sound wildlife biology.

So why does this problem go on forever? People steal the charisma of the
animals to boost their own ego and status, which translates into money. It
is always the money. So far as I care, wildlife will be considerably better
off without Treadwell and Irwin. Where are the other voices of the people
who should object? Why should the balance always be stacked for the
sensational, the glitz?

Charles Jonkel is president of the Missoula-based Great Bear Foundation