Dear Animal Planet/Discovery Channel,
I am writing a letter of concern after watching the program "Killer Squid" on Animal Planet a couple nights ago. (I didn't see that program in the list so I just picked the first one.) I was disturbed by the treatment of the squid as depicted in this program, especially given that the majority of your viewers are impressionable young people. The program gave the impression that it is OK to barbarically kill predatory squid because they have been known to attack human beings. The divers went deep underwater and entered the squids' domain - the place where they live, and hunt - and then wonder why they were attacked? Then they proudly showed off a brutal lure made of many small hooks to catch the squid and haul it to the surface to die. Not only was this presented as acceptable, but as something the squid-hunters were excited about. I watch quite a bit of Animal Planet, and am frequently disturbed by how sensational and tabloid-like a lot of your programming is. This teaches kids to view animals as something to fear and that it's OK for us to kill them when they defend themselves from OUR advances. This is the attitude that resulted in grizzly bears, wolves, etc. nearly being wiped out in the frontier days. What about showing a documentary like "Sharkwater" that presents another view of animals that are constantly presented as monsters on your network? I would like to see Animal Planet move in the direction of more mature, balanced, and intelligent programming in the future.
Thank you for reading this comment
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