Do you ever watch those nature programs on TV & feel sorry for the animal that gets killed and eaten?

Question

You know it's necessary, but still. It's always worse to me when it's a baby that gets eaten.

Answer 1

I am with you on that. I accept the food chain, yet I have a hard time watching Planet Earth. It is a really amazing series but sad. I had to walk out 3 times during March of the Penguins. Beautiful movie but moments of sadness.

Answer 2

No. It is important to realize that even if you are a vegetarian, you kill lower creatures in order to survive. In fact, the best episode I ever saw of Survivor, was when some guys caught and killed a pig. It is survival, not entertainment. It isn't supposed to make you feel good, it's just the way things are. You aren't supposed to revel in it, so it's fine that you feel bad, change the channel.

There is a formula for those shows, and it's based on what naturalists think is important about animals - behavior, habitat, and reproduction. This means that if the show is about a predator, you are going to be shown how it catches it's food. And catching and killing the weaklings and babies who aren't well-protected, is actually good for the population of whatever animal is being eaten. As long as people stay out of it, those things seem to naturally balance fairly well.

Answer 3

Yes. I always hope that the baby animal will suddenly turn into this snarling beast and rip into the attacker. Kind of like baby Jack Jack from the Invincibles. Alas.
Try to keep your eye on the big picture. The making of electricity, PCs, cars, aluminum cans, in short everything we associate with modern living, comes at a cost to living critters and the ecosystems that support them and their babies. Big time. As the human species expands to fill every fricking niche on the planet, we are squeezing out and killing baby animals…but the flip side is that somewhere a human baby is not getting dysentery or scurvy or being eaten by dingoes.
Albert Einstein once said that it is a delusion of the mind that we are separate from the universe, and by extension, it is a delusion of our minds that a baby gazelle is separate from the lioness and her cubs. Go watch The Lion King again and sing along for me.

Answer 4

I do all the time, I always make my boyfriend change the channel or leave the room. I also understand it is the way of nature, but it's so sad. i would rather see a human being (adult) get killed than a cute animal.
I also have a hard time going fishing, I always try NOT to catch a fish. I know these events are necessary, but sad.
PS I eat animals and would never become a vegetarian, I just can't kill stuff or watch it be killed.

Answer 5

yes, i feel that despite knowing it's just a natural chain ...
i feel for the lost children, women - men
and the other tragic events in the world.
makes it hard to watch the news sometimes.
maybe i am too sensitive, but i would rather be that
than to not feel anything at all.

Answer 6

Yes I feel sorry, for the animal, but realize that it is "the law of nature."

Answer 7

Actually I don't. I feel sorry for the hunter, because I know some sad day they will no longer be able to hunt, and its an awful thing to lose the ability to live.

Answer 8

Yes! I watched one last night and a croc killed and ate a baby hippo. It does make you fell sad. I hope he wasn't related to George the Pink Hippo.

Answer 9

I agree, don't watch it.
This is all apart of nature keeping it's population under control.

It is very difficult to watch.

Answer 10

they never run!! they just sit there and never run ok to be fair most of them do run but like never speed up!! seriously and like wait for others to move so it can continue running you know these nature programms makes you thankful that god made you human and placed a brain in you to think