Animal Planet’s Call of the Wildman: Helping or Harming?

Call of the Wildman is one of Animal Planet’s most popular shows. It follows the adventures of Kentucky “woodsman” Ernie Brown, Jr., nicknamed “The Turtleman,” his friend, Neal James, and his dog, Lolly. Brown operates a nuisance animal removal business, supposedly catching the animals without harming them and releasing them back into the wild.

Brown first gained media popularity in an episode of Kentucky Afield Tv, “The Turtleman.” From this first example, we can see that his appeal is more about entertainment than wildlife education. The video’s description reads, “Watch as he reaches blindly into murky waters infested with snapping turtles in hopes of grabbing the tail end of this sharp beaked beast. The turtleman is a true one of a kind character.”

Now, Brown’s show, “Call of the Wildman,” is being called out by Mother Jones’ James West for mistreatment of animals. According to the expose:

With three seasons under its belt, Call of the Wildman is part of Animal Planet’s ongoing shift away from educational programming to reality TV. “We’re not looking to be a natural history channel,” Animal Planet group president Marjorie Kaplan told the New York Times in 2008. “We’re looking to be an entertainment destination.”  

Such a direction doesn’t seem to make the most sense for a network that most people assume works in the best interest of animals. Or at least, they did. Now, the seven-month Mother Jones investigation:

…which drew on internal documents, interviews with eight people involved with the show’s production, and government records—reveals evidence of a culture that tolerated legally and ethically dubious activities, including: using an animal that had been drugged with sedatives in violation of federal rules; directing trappers to procure wild animals, which were then “caught” again as part of a script; and wrongly filling out legal documents detailing the crew’s wildlife activities for Kentucky officials.

Even if Animal Planet is transitioning toward more “entertainment based” shows, it’s absolutely no excuse to become lax about animal welfare or protection. In response to the allegations, Animal Planet turned to their partner for the show, Sharp Entertainment.

The producers said that they have investigated allegations of animal mistreatment that were brought to their attention last May by a staffer. “We’ve always made the humane treatment of animals our top priority,” says Dan Adler, a Sharp senior vice president. Sharp says that after the allegations came to light, it introduced new written guidelines for the field crew, and, for the first time, hired an on-set licensed animal handler when shooting began again around May 22 last year.

However, the network will not be pulling the alleged episodes in question, and no employees were fired as a result. The main offending episode involves the capture of a female raccoon who turned out to have babies. These babies were used as props to create drama in the show, and later given to a rehabilitation center as a last resort, where one of the babies unfortunately died. In addition to this offense, other allegations include: placing bats in a hair salon, drugging a zebra, and mistreating a mink.

In light of this investigation, it’s clear that the show has gone too far, from entertainment to pure exploitation.

Check out the video introduction to the Mother Jones’ investigation, and read it in-full right here. Be sure to also sign this Causes.com petition urging Animal Planet to require animal abuse monitors on set.