Animal Planet shows

We finally sucked it up and got cable The TV viewing was awful on the weekends and we just couldn't stand it.

Anyway, we now have Animal Planet.

Has anyone seen the shows "Animal Cops" or "Last Chance Highway"?

Both break my heart, but in different ways.

If you haven't seen them, "Animal Cops" is pretty self explanatory.

Whereas, "Last Chance Highway" is about people who go around and rescue dogs and transport them across state lines to find new adoptive homes. I realize that this show is about dogs, but I am sure we all love the story that is happening.

I am incredibly addicted to most shows on Animal Planet, in fact it is one of the few channels I watch faithfully. Animal Cops I watch almost everyday and cry almost everytime. Dana always asks me why I bother if it upsets me so, but I LOVE the HAPPY endings...

Yep, AP is one of our favs. I cannot watch anything with abuse to animals though, so the cop show I have never seen. Just upsets me to no end.

There is one show on there that is about a cat behavorist who visits problem cats. It is kind of lame IMO. Most of her suggestions are just plain common sense.

Yes I have watched AP for many years and I do cry a lot. I haven't watched it much lately but I did always watch the Animal Cops shows and favored the ones done in NY since it is so close to my area. What goes on out there is frightening and so sad, some people should not be allowed to breathe after what they have done to poor innocent animals.

I stopped watching Animal (Rights) Planet years ago. You have to have blinders on not to realize what they're doing. From their show content, to R.O.A.R, to having people who work for them also sitting on HSUS's board.

I really wish more people would realize that Animal Planet helps support and perpetuate AR!

What's wrong with supporting animal rights? Animal Planet is very educational TV, any way you slice it, and I do believe that the programming they have helps animals, whether it be thru education people about animals or garnering donations. The HSUS isn't perfect, but they do help animals.

Go flip it to AP right now. The current shows on atm are LIES, half truths that they twisted around to sensationalize them. That's not education. Even one of the people interviewed about reptiles said they got in his face asking about how reptiles to kill people. Which btw, the real stories are that the woman got bit, had preexisting health issues and the hospital gave her the wrong anti-venom, in the other, the guy died from an infection. The families weren't consulted.
I image the big cat one is wildly spun, too. John (AmberThe Bobcat) on here probably knows more of the background story on that one.


AR and HSUS (and PETA) are bad because they want to eradicate pets. Really, everyone knows that already... Research HSUS better, too. Their money goes in their own pockets, to their lawyers, and to politics (illegally). The IRS is investigating them!


And if people want to say they have plenty of cute happy shows, too. Again, there's lies there too. Take Big Cat Diaries and growing up series. There were some cats featured, that after the filming was over with did no go on to happy long lives. iirc there was one about three tiger - two of them later ended up dead.

What you see often isn't the truth.

no, what you see isn't often the truth, especially on TV, but Animal Planet does it's fair share to educate people about the plight of animals, bottom line. How many people do you think the shows of the Animal Cops genre have gotten to volunteer in shelters? gee, who wins there? maybe.....the animals? and the dog training show? how many dogs do you think that show helped keep their homes? Even one is enough IMO.

Sure, some of it's shows are sensationalistic, some of them are actually meant to be, (Monsters Inside Me?, I mean really?) but so is the regular news these days

The IRS is investigating a lot of organizations. Like I said, the HSUS isn't perfect, and I don't donate to them, I donate enough to the care of my own cats, but I'd be willing to bet (at least a dollar), that Animal Planet sparks an interest in animals in many young minds, young minds that go on to become veterinarians or marine biologists or any other such careers. I personally am willing to overlook the bad for the good where Animal Planet is concerned. Not everything is villainous.

The problem is that there's been more and more leanings towards AR in their programing, as some point out since Irwin's death. Past AP wasn't that bad, but their line up is getting much worse. Look at Whale Wars - they endorse/pay a criminal.
The better shows are often older ones that are reruns.

The animal cop shows that promoted blindly euthanizing dogs due to BSL and euthanizing all feral cats weren't very helpful. It just teaches people that this is acceptable. There's enough problem already with people poisoning and shooting ferals, more people don't need to get the message that the only way to deal with ferals is to kill them.
One of the last shows I watched of those, and I can't remember what location it was, had several people in on a hoarding house (cats, dogs, trash, etc). There was one woman, on camera, that grabbed an older kitten/young cat by a hind leg. When it turned in fear to try to grab her she pulled her arm back and threw the cat down HARD - it was screaming until it hit the ground. That's the sort of thing they'll air - it gave me chills.


AR doesn't help animals, it helps itself by spreading anti pet ownership and vegan ideals. (Ask Ohio citizens, lol) That's where they spend the money that does get spent. HSUS is PETA with better organizing, yet no one ever claims that PETA is helping animals.

I enjoy Animal Planet. I never really thought about the AR part of it, and I think shows like Animal Cops are good for the public to see, so they know that there are lines you do NOT cross, and things you need to be doing in owning a pet. I watch a lot of the programs and just like them for the whole animal aspect.

I saw the shows, I think it was called "Dangerous Addictions" or something, no! Fatal Attractions? lol whatever. With the lady who had the panther who ate half of her head and had to be shot because of her ignorance, and the man who was eaten by his own lizards or whatever. I thought they were educational. Maybe emphasized, who knows? But definitely educational. So many people that keep reptiles - myself included - get so comfortable with them, they kiss them on their scaly heads or handle them and don't wash their hands, and infections are incredibly easy to get. Also, with the big cats, there are times you need to remember - with any animal - that they ARE animals and do have certain instincts. I'm not going to stop keeping reptiles because that guy's reptiles ate him, you know, I'm just much more careful after something like that.

Anyway, I just enjoying having a network all about animals. I'd rather be watching it than some of the ridiculous stuff that comes up on main TV these days.

I love animal planet.

I'm especially lately hooked on that show where the lady "talks" to the animals to fix their problems. Can't remember the title because everytime I tune in it's after the opening credits but I love her. She seems so sweet.

EmeraldSongbird - Were you ok with them calling people dedicated to their pets, and pet reptiles, delusional? Especially when the people claiming such had no degrees in psychology? Most people would claim those with more than two cats are "crazy cat ladies", btw. I think we have a few with 17? 20? or even nearly 30 cats.

The guys reptiles never killed and ate him. There was actually an article a few years ago that said they did - iirc someone started a thread on here about it and I pointed out how silly it was. It was only after the poor lizards were starving that they munched on the only source of protein. Dogs, cats, and humans have done this, too.

Originally Posted by strange_wings

EmeraldSongbird - Were you ok with them calling people dedicated to their pets, and pet reptiles, delusional? Especially when the people claiming such had no degrees in psychology? Most people would claim those with more than two cats are "crazy cat ladies", btw. I think we have a few with 17? 20? or even nearly 30 cats.

The guys reptiles never killed and ate him. There was actually an article a few years ago that said they did - iirc someone started a thread on here about it and I pointed out how silly it was. It was only after the poor lizards were starving that they munched on the only source of protein. Dogs, cats, and humans have done this, too.

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Of course I'm not "okay" with it. If someone is capable of properly taking care of so many animals, whatever type they are, then more power to them. But there ARE hoarders out there that do not know what in the heck they're doing, and aren't giving the animals a good home.

What happened to the man with the reptiles was - and they explained it quite clearly - he was bitten, and didn't take care of the bite properly. An infection set in, and he didn't go to the hospital. Animals being animals, the starving reptiles did set in on the only meat they had access to, which just happened to be their dead owner's body. And, the show explains it again, he was well-educated in all of this, most likely knew he was dying but didn't want to leave his pets without any "food" and so did not go to the hospital.

But I get it, you hate Animal Planet, and that's your right to do so! I'm still a little bit confused as to why we should be condemning it (although I know all organizations have some kind of corrupt element to them, that just seems to be the case everywhere as stated by other posters on here).

Like I said, I would just rather watch AP than some of the useless, ridiculous stuff that is shown on TV these days.

I love Animal Planet!. especially when the animal cops get to slap a court order on the so called owners!

I, too, LOVE Animal Planet.. Always have, always will. Nothing anyone says can ever change that.

While any of the Animal Cop shows can be very heartbreaking, I still watch them, because I love seeing neglectful owners prosecuted for animal cruelty and I love to see most of the pets that have been taken away from the bad owners move on to better, happier homes. It does kill me if an animal needs to be put down, and I HATE seeing the state a lot of those animals are in when discovered, emaciated, no food or water, stuff like that, but its good to see happy endings most of the time. I like watching Animal Cops - Philadelphia because its only about 10 minutes from me.

I like a lot of their other shows, like, Pit Boss, It's me or the Dog, Cats 101, I do like that show called Fatal Attractions, too. There's more but I can't think of them.. There is another about Pit Bulls, I forget the name of it and I haven't seen it in a while, but its about a woman who rescues Pits and works with them and adopts them out, or keeps them in a sanctuary or something if she can't find them homes.

I was just watching a show last night about Michael Jackson's chimpanzee, Bubbles.

Animal cops is one of my fav shows and I seriously thought about getting into animal cruelty investigation but since we're leaving here in Jan I'm thinking maybe once we get to CO I can take a look at the steps to get into it (since from what I've seen it's nothing you have to be an actual officer to do).

I watch Animal Planet all of the time also.. It is somewhat educational and better than most cable TV stations out there. In fact today I was watching a last summmer episode of IMOTD with my favorite dog behavorist Victoria Stillwell. I am also very grateful they decited to bring Housecat Housecall back with Dr. Katrina Warren. I just wish they would bring back Underdog to Wonderdog which was also a very good show.

I liked the "Dog Town" shows.

"Whale Wars," however, is a little over the top.

And, actually, I don't think most people DO understand that most of the AR organizations have the goal of eliminating ALL pet and animal ownership.

I LOVE Animal Planet, really do not see anything wrong with it... at the least. To say that Animal Cops shows animal being euthanized left and right, and that they prefer to just kill ferals and sick animals to treat them... It souds like we are actually watching two different channels. I see Animal Cops and the people on their shows going through great lenghts to not only rescue, but treat, rehabilitate and adopt out animals - of all kinds, and on the top of it, to prosecute the abusers.

Yes, I do understand some people like John might have a problem with the wild animal ownership issue and that he feels the station position might be unfair to him personally, but actually there is a LOT of people who adopt wild animals who should NOT be doing so; and in the end, some might be upset, but it also might be a very good thing that the issue is addressed.

Owning a wild animal is not for everybody, and I see nothing wrong having shows about it.

For goodness sakes - sensationalism? What abouth The Bachelor? John and Kate plus 8? Fear Factor? Wife Swap? The Bachelorette?

Yes, sensationalism sells, luckily, we still have the discovery channels that at least put it to a good use

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I liked the "Dog Town" shows.

"Whale Wars," however, is a little over the top.

And, actually, I don't think most people DO understand that most of the AR organizations have the goal of eliminating ALL pet and animal ownership.

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I'm not being a smarty-pants, I'm genuinely asking... when you say AR you mean Animal Rights, yes? And I am just totally confused at why they would call it that but be wanting to eliminate pet and animal ownership. Like... can you explain more to me? I am just... out of the loop, I guess, I have no idea what all of that means.