Inhumane Factor
By: Chris Law
Contestants made to carry snakes in their mouths, risking injury to the animal unnecessarily
Today’s television entertainment industry is pulling out all of the stops to keep your eyes glued to the television set. Between ‘reality’ TV series (which are often as far separated from reality as you’re going to get) and music competitions, to shows containing games of skill to shows that play upon your fears such as one called Fear Factor. Fear Factor has always had some questionable tasks that their contestants must face to get to the next ‘challenge’. Often, they are required to eat items such as brains of cows and other farm animals, eyeballs, and other organs. Sometimes, they take the next step up and use real live insects which the contestants must consume. Recently, they had live scorpions that were eaten and ripped apart for consumption. This alone questions the moral boundaries of the show, but most people can deal with it.
On January 2nd 2012, NBC aired another episode of Fear Factor, where the contestants had to face a fear of snakes. We’ve all seen it before, someone sits in a tub and dozens and dozens of snakes are dumped on top of them and they have to last a predetermined amount of time. However, this episode was a bit different. One contestant would lie down in the tub, wherein an assortment of snakes would be dumped on top of them. In this particular case, reticulated pythons, ball pythons, and common boa constrictors of assorted sizes were included. Before the first pair of contestants began, it was mentioned that inside the container was a total of 500 snakes.
"500" snakes being jam-packed on top of each other
Five hundred snakes cramped into one location, all of them piled on top of each other is quite unhealthy and highly stressful for these animals. There are some species that can be quite content being close to other snakes and even in large numbers (especially during hibernation periods). However, for most species, especially pythons and boa constrictors, this is not the case. It is very stressful for pythons and boas to be housed too close together, much less piled on top of each other by several hundred specimens. Excessive numbers of these animals piled on top of each other, results in low oxygen quality for those who are stuck at the bottom of the pile. Furthermore, they had a mixture of multiple species (Reticulated python, Ball pythons, and Common Boa Constrictors) intermingled. Each of these species occupies different habitats in different parts of the world. Never would these species even come close to having overlapping habitat ranges. This creates even greater stress and depending on whether these animals were captive bred or if wild-caught and imported, there could be risk of pathogen and parasite transmission among them as well.
The next issue that comes to mind is the handling methods. To be fair, Fear Factor had posted on their Twitter page (which will be addressed below) what they consider to be adequate precautions to ensure the well being of the animals. Further, we can even take into account that the hosts of Fear Factor and the network, NBC, that owns the show are not animal experts and rely on those whom they feel are experts to provide them with sound advice that helps them meet their goals of the show.
“Contestants were specially fit with invisible retainers to protect the snakes from their teeth.”- Fear Factor via Twitter on 1/2/2012
It can be applauded that they seemingly had the physical well being of the snakes in mind (even if the above mentioned issues were neglected). However, retainers or no retainers, jaw pressure is a little difficult to gauge. Especially when the idea behind your show is to play upon the fears of your contestants, a retainer is very limited in its protection and comfort for the animals. Pressure being applied excessively can result in easily broken ribs, and that is even with the ‘protection’ of a rubber retainer. They have to keep in mind, that they trust these animals within the mouths of people who fear them in the first place. A movement made by the snake that made one suddenly even more uncomfortable could lead to a mistake injuring the animal unnecessarily. When a responsible handler is handling their animal, body weight is supported completely. Hands are used with gauged grips to keep the animal secure, yet not too rigidly restrained (which upsets the snakes).
“Over 300 snakes were used on the stunt and had to be taken out of the coffin each time so they didn’t overheat or get stressed out.”- Fear Factor via Twitter on 1/2/2012
Again, we can applaud their efforts to concern themselves with the well being of the animals. However, here are some more issues. The overheating is a reasonable concern and it’s great that they took that into consideration. However, in the case of their concern about “stress”, they failed miserably. First, the very conditions in which they are initially housed in from the start are stressful to the animals. Being shuffled around, picked up with a firm grip in some other creature’s mouth (predation concern) is stressful. Being tossed about as they are being moved from one box to the other in rapid succession (snakes don’t enjoy sudden movements very much) and then dropped is stressful. Follow that up with the constant removal and reshuffling them into new compartments to start the process all over again and you’ve established an environment that is highly stressful and actually increases risks to the snake’s health dramatically.
The above said, it is important to keep in mind that Fear Factor is not solely responsible in this situation. Fear Factor does not stock snakes or breed them for the sake of people’s entertainment. Instead, they search for breeders or dealers that are relatively local that can supply them with the animals for their shows. One has proudly taken credit for their involvement:
Reptile Island, based in California, is owned by Chris Giacoletti. This breeder/dealer has chosen money as his driving factor and has sold out the very animals that have supported his business and lifestyle and kept a roof over his head. The very animals that many of us are striving to get the public to understand and have some appreciation for, he has decided that all of this is not worth it and has thrown his fellow community members under the bus. It seems that breeders and dealers like this particular company have decided that our community has not had enough torment on the public stage and from animal rights organizations who feel already that keeping these animals in captivity in the first place is inhumane and needs to be stopped. They believe this so intently that they are pushing for federal regulations and bans on even 2 species that this particular individual used for his stunts, the reticulated python (Python reticulatus) and the Boa constrictors (Boa constrictor imperator). These are the bad apples in the herpetological community that we need to weed out by showing them that enough is enough.
It is time that we stand up and take our community back and stop allowing big television networks such as NBC with their show Fear Factor, Animal Planet with their plethora of horrid shows, and any others that are discovered, that the herpetological community has had enough of the sensationalism and blatant lies about the animals about which we are passionate and work so hard to educate the public on. It is time that we step up and respond to these individuals and entities and let them know that their behaviors and actions will no longer be tolerated.
Below is contact information for NBC as well as the contact information for Chris Giacoletti of Reptile Island, based in California. However, I urge you all to be respectful in your approaches to these entities and work to change things for the better and demonstrate that we *DO* care about our animals, their well being, as well as how they (and we) are represented.
Contacts:
Reptile Island
3960 Prospect Avenue, Yorba Linda, CA 92886
(714) 524-8442
Chris Giacoletti, owner
For NBC, please see their website at : http://www.nbc.com/contact/general/
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I’m sorry but, If you cannot produce x-rays for each and every snake used, you can’t say they where unharmed in any way shape or form. Mouth guards do not control the pressure put on the spine of the snake during this reckless stunt. I have seen many spinal injuries in snakes from mishaps with enclosure doors.
The average Pressure of a human bite is 621 PSI with a force of 680 newton. Clearly the average human can inflict injury without even knowing it. Mike Tyson showed the world a prime example of this. What this means is a Human can chew through a cinder block, simple as that.
I’m not trying to be negative at all here, just stating a fact that for what the network payed for use of the snakes would never cover an x-ray on each individual snake nor would the keeper be able to afford such an exam. So with this, I believe the keeper has no ground to even defend himself without vet exams including proof of spinal x-rays after the event. Show me 500 x-rays and vet records and You will have my full attention and support.
Robert,
Thank you for replying to my article. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that you feel that so long as the animal has not been physically injured, that all is well? Is that impression correct? Stress is a major killer of reptiles. Please keep in mind, that regardless whether these animals came back physically fine, the stress alone is enough to cause this animal problems in years to come.
Also keep in mind, that you are going to be turning around and selling these very same animals to someone else who might not know what type of treatment they endured prior to their purchase. Feeding an animal 4 days after enduring that kind of stress? Not something I would have recommended. Just the same as giving an animal that is new to your collection some time to get used to the new surroundings requires a week or two, I would have allowed the same for these animals. We cannot assume that just because it would pound a mouse, that all is fine and well in their world.
Dumping snakes by the dozens just into a tub is highly stressful. Being forced to be so packed tight with each other is highly stressful. Having some large creature grab you within their mouths, moving you rapidly out of the container, possibly smacking your head against a table in the process and then dropping you is highly stressful.
Even for argument’s sake, we can assume that stress is alleviated and there is no physical injury to be concerned about. The public eye is seeing these animals that our community claims to love and respect, being treated as if they are nothing more than canned goods, instead of a living entity that feels pain and fear. You want to talk about a “Fear Factor”? What about the fear that those animals were forced to endure for the sake of entertainment?
It should be the objective of the herpetological community to step up, and change perceptions about these creatures and not perpetuate the cycle that is keeping the stigma against them in motion. Absolutely nothing good came out of that show…except your bank account, I’m sure.
I understand that if you’re going to make a living as a breeder and dealer, that when money is offered, that it’s hard not to jump on the option. If what you say is true and you have in the past turned down opportunities that you felt where inhumane and too risky to the animals…I applaud and thank you. However, this one should have been added to that list, even if the physical injury risk was alleviated.
You are right about one thing, if you had not done this show, most likely someone else would have. However, it would be they who’s in the hot seat for this, and not you.
Best regards,
Chris
The inappropriate handling of live animals makes me feel like a cat who’s fur is being stroked the wrong direction! What bothers me just as much is media and TV shows that feed on the fear and ignorance of it’s audience by promoting these irresponsible tactics. Shame on Fear Factor. Shame on Animal Planet. Shame on professionals in our hobby that sell out their souls to this lie.
To comment further on the issue: shows such as fear factor are going to have reptiles with or without our involvement. Our job is to make sure that the animals are treated in a way so that both they and the contestants are safe. For every stunt you see on TV, we reject dozens that we deem unsafe. On set, it is us that are on the sides of the animals and are discussing with producers what can or can not be done. If professional wranglers such as us are not on set, then it is likely stunts could be attempted in unsafe manners. We are there for the animals’ well-fare first and foremost. The continued accusations that we are here to exploit animals are simply untrue, and I believe we have made that point clear.
For this particular stunt, we felt it could be done with no injuries to the animals and this was correct. To date, we have not had any incidents regarding animal misuse on set or our stores and we will continue to keep that the case.
That said, while we can’t control programing, we certainly will take more efforts to discuss with producers how stunts and segments affect the greater reptile community and steer them away from programing that might be viewed as offensive. We’ve already talked to a few producers about the comments we’ve received and they will be well considered.
Thanks,
Robert
So Robert…
You say this kind of program will use snakes with our without involvement from the herp community. Which first and foremost is an assumption not a fact but secondly it leads to a question:
Do you support the campaign to ban the use of reptiles and other animals in the ways they are currently used in shows like “fear factor” and “I’m a celebrity”? Or are you justifying this kind of exploitation?
I was dismayed to see that this show was using animals as Fear Factor subjects. Please know that I was even more dismayed to hear one of our reptile community was involved. These episodes that use these ideas could not have happened if our community would simply have said no to the TV episodes, with any animal. Most of the agencies have refused to do contractual work for the Fear Factor show, due to the unethical treatment of all animals on set. I’m hoping that people that are opposed to these shows will say NO to any involvement with them. I for one am strongly opposed to any animal or animals being used strictly for human entertainment, and prefer to see only educational shows that are in natural settings that explain about the natural behaviors of said, reptile, mammal, or invertebrate. No cheap shots, we owe it to our wards to treat them with respect!
Excellent article Chris possibly the best I’ve ever read on this matter. It’s also nice to see a reasonably constructive response from someone actually involved but I do have to say that the way the response is worded absolutely screams “PR exercise” rather than animal care to me.
Last year I had the displeasure of reading the emailed demands of another country’s ‘fear factor’ franchise sent to a reptile park and I have to say animal welfare was definitely a distant second to audience reactions. I get that this will vary from country to country with laws but it is definitely not a good thing!
Finally in response to Robert Walter… I would like to say that while it is good that the treatment of the animals on the program apparently appears much worse on TV than in reality… THIS IS A BAD THING. I will argue to my dying breath that many people take in a lot of what they see on TV and so in my opinion, regardless of audience, any TV show which uses animals should portray good animal welfare at all times. The public, especially children are very impressionable and popular TV shows affect people consciously as well as subconsciously.
I couldn’t agree more with Chris. You can talk about rehearsing all you want, you can talk about how the snakes fed 4 days after the show (really?…why would you feed so soon after stressing the crap out of them???), but the bottom line is that “perception is reality” and the reality is that these snakes were subjected to treatment that was not good for them. I’m a curator at a very well respected living natural history museum in Chicago and a long time professional herpetologist and professor of biology and having kept and bred Ball Pythons for many years (including keeping once for 44 years that I still have) all I’ll say is that subjecting these snakes to this type of treatment is cruel. Period. It gives everyone in the industry, the hobby, you name it a bad name and in this day and age when hobbyists rights are being taken away due to misconceptions, what you did only perpetuates the problem. As you obviously don’t know, stress is cumulative in snakes like ball pythons. That means that they hide it well. In short, doing this episode was not good for the snakes.
No snake or animals should be for entertainment they should be treated with respect.Yes no matter what you call it you are making money off the snake for entertainment and no the snake don’t like to be treated like that. Fear Factor or any other show that using animals for entertainment are just wrong. Join the FB page to show Fear Factor and other TV show we will not stand the abused and using of any animals for entertainment.
PLEASE JOIN FB PAGE ABOUT THE SHOW FEAR FACTOR THAT USING LIVE OR DEAD ANIMALS ON TV SHOW. WE ARE TRY TO GET THEM TO STOP USING LIVE OR DEAD ANIMALS ON THIS SHOW. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fear-Factor-NBC-Stop-Killing-Animals/275456635845736
My name is Robert and I’m a partner with Chris Giacoletti and personally worked on this episode.
The response we’ve seen over it is a double edged sword to be sure. On one hand, I’m glad so many people are deeply concerned about animal well-fare. On the other, its quite distressing to be targeted as neglecting animals. We care very deeply for all animals, including reptiles and our main concern on set was their safety.
I fully respect peoples concerns over the episode and want to rest assure them that no animals were harmed, physically or otherwise. I personally inspected each snake before and after the filming to insure they were unharmed. As the author of this article wrote, reality TV truly is “often as far separated from reality as you’re going to get.” What was presented on TV is different from what happened on set. The stunt was rehearsed many times, and the contestants did have mouth guards on to protect the animals from teeth, as well as we went over extensively the amount of pressure to be used. The result was the snakes being moved in a manor not significantly different then snake tongs. The receptacle they were placing the animals had a 3 inch foam pad covered by 3 inches of pine bedding to insure a safe landing. All of these snakes were captive bred and disease/ paracite free. In reality, less then half of the advertized “500 snakes” were used, and they were only together for very short periods of time. None of the snakes later showed any signs of distress or illness.
While stress is a very subjective measure, 95% of them ate four days after the episode at their scheduled feeding (as to be normally expected) and the rest ate soon after. We still have most of the snakes still with us, minus those we’ve since sold. While American Humane wasn’t present on this set, we’ve worked with them extensively in other productions and adhere to their standards of animal care.
Obviously many have issue with the episode, regardless of the well-being of the snakes. I can’t really argue either way on the taste of the episode however there was no intent of disrespect for the reptile community. Fear factor uses many “fears” in its episodes in addition to reptiles including dogs, piercings / tattoos, bungee jumping, sky diving, jet skiing, etc.
As far as it having an impact on legislative issues concerning boas and pythons; the only thing those laws are dealing with is the invasive nature of some of these animals that have been irresponsibly released into the wild. It has little to nothing to do with public perceptions of reptiles as a pet or industry.
I’d also like to state that, like most of us in the reptile community, we are involved with reptiles because we care very much for and respect them. Certainly if we were here to make a fast buck, there are far easier more profitable industries to do so. At every set, as well as our stores, our top concern is for the animals. We’ve halted or canceled many stunts in the past that we didn’t feel were safe, much to the producer’s anger, just as we’ve refused to sell animals in our stores if a customer doesn’t display a responsible attitude.
Unfortunately, some posts on our facebook were nonconstructive or were just name calling. As is standard on public forums, these were removed. We posted on our page that we are happy to answer questions or concerns that are posted in a respectful manner and most posts have remained up.
We thank you for your concerns and we’ll try to answer any follow questions or comments.
Could I post the artical on my wall on Fb ? Thanks for sharing with us, and it is time to share with the world all these insane and cruel behavior of mankind. Hendrik
Actually there’s a share button below specifically for that purpose please do use that!
I have made valid comments to the “Reptile Island” Facebook page and although within their question ” guidelines”, I was still blocked and my comment was deleted. They are obviously one-sided in deciding what comments they feel are “valid”.. it is upsetting to see a such a harmful act against out beloved animals well-being as well as harmful to the large constrictor hobby itself. Reptile Island should be ashamed of themselves
I completely agree Lisa, and hopefully with Chris we can begin to make a larger stand on things like this. Thanks for letting us know what actions you took and we applaud you for that!
Thanks, Lisa. There’s going to be a lot of people who don’t like the truth, simply because it hurts. Anything that goes against their belief system simply will not be tolerated and they demonstrate this by childish methods such as the one you describe. Thanks for fighting the good fight and keep at it!
Chris
It is unfortunate that we needed to remove your posts. As warned, all posts that were non constructive or were abusive were removed. As you can see by our page, most comments have been left up.
For arguments sake, I saved my post. What’s funny? You said only offensive name calling or posts along those lines were deleted. Do you find this anywhere near untrue? ” I will have to say, bravo for helping to contribute to the media stereotypes against large constrictors. Your shop is just as much involved with hurting the hobby many of us have been trying to save as the HSUS is by not only supplying such animals for a show based on fears but also showing we, as keepers, are willing to subject our animals to possible harms way for the entertainment of others. Since your shop owns large constrictors, I’m sure you are no stranger to the ban that is trying to be passed. How could you let them use these animals in media on a show based about the fears of these creatures we, responsible pet owners, have been fighting hard to keep?”