Disgusting Lamprey

[Chiltern Chris]

Just have to say this to let off a bit of steam after a couple of things that happened the day before yesterday .

Firstly, I was watching BBC Breakfast TV while munching my weetabix when an article about sea lamprey in the Tamar indicating how the river is recovering came on. The article lasted about 3 minutes and in that time the two female presenters (sorry ladies) called the lamprey “disgusting” 4 times and “horrible” twice. Nice one BBC.

Then that evening I was at an open evening at a secondary school. The biology department had pulled out all the stops and had on show some salamanders, a chameleon, a tarantula (all 3 part of a captive breeding programme to help prevent animals being taken from the wild) and a pig’s heart dissection being demonstrated. Again, about 15% of the parents wouldn’t go into the biology rooms because of the “disgusting” animals and the “disgusting” heart. Ahhh!

How divorced are we becoming from the real world when killing endangered species for fashion and factory farming animals and putting their ground up feet and beaks and other bits into sausages and burgers is fine but coming face to face with a real animal or a body part that keeps you alive is “disgusting and horrible”. I pity the poor kids with these parents and I pity us with terrible reporting like the report on the lamprey.

OK, I feel better now. Thanks for listening.

Chris

[rlchew]

Chris

I saw that BBC Breakfast report too and I totally share your feelings.

Why run a worthwhile story regarding a wildlife recovery story and then use terms like "disgusting" and "horrible"?

As you rightly say, there are many more appropriate targets for words like these but so many people accept them as part of the wonderful quality of life we now "enjoy" in the 2007.

Mad

Richard

[paulchandler6]

I saw the lamprey feature as well and thought where are these people coming from. They live in their own sanitised world and and never get out into the real world.

Paul

[Jez]

I saw this and couldn't believe my ears either. If anything it, was her disgusting tongue flapping that was really off putting why couldn't they get someone who passionate about wildlife to cover the good news?

[Hobjob]

I hope those that saw the BBC bit wrote and complained ??

[mh68]

Saw it also....ended up wondering why they bothered reporting it considering the comments made by the reporter.

Mark H

[pressld2]

Didn't see it myself, which is probably just as well as I don't need any more reasons to shout at the telly!

And what is wrong with those parents? Salamanders, chameleons and tarantulas are all beautiful, and while that's not a word I would use to describe a pig's heart neither is "horrible" or "disgusting".

I guess it takes all sorts, but why does there have to be so many of that sort?

Dave P.

[Dan Salter]

Makes you wish "points of view" was still on tv...

i didnt see it but im sure i would have been fuming...and given the reverse...a story about the trouble that orang's are in...bet your bottom dollar they would have been cooing over them....awww so cute...how sweet...lovely...etc. GRRRRR


And as for parents...dont even get me started. And to be honest...you cant blame those parents....sadly its THEIR parents fault...I am 34 and not yet a parent (though i cant wait to be) and am probably of similar age to those parents you witnessed.....I have a massive understanding of wildlife, life, the real world, culture, etc...and its mostly thanks to my uprbringing and my nan joining me up to the Y.O.C then the R.S.P.B as a child..plus my mum who was a nurse before i was born and watches any medical stuff on tv so i ended up being top of the class in biology...hence i would not have called a dissected heart disgusting...and had i had them already neither would my kids. Plus i (not for years) kept snakes and lizards and terantulas...so they would be used to those also.

But sadly im not normal...my generation ..the norm was to spend most of your time at the pub..or football matches...or weekends strung out on drugs at raves, parties, festivals, then the clubbing scene etc...doesnt leave much time for learning about the real world. Im about the only person out of most of my extended group of friends who has travelled around the world...climbed twice to everest base camp...seen dying leppers in india. And studied any wildlife i have come across since i was a child.

Im not saying this about ALL parents...indeed with my work with the wildlife trusts i smile all the time watching parents bring in their children for pond dipping etc...i think to myself..Thank god....some people still have the right idea. I also love what my hero Jimmy from Jimmy's farm has done to include kids activities, nature trail, petting zoos, but most of all BUTCHERY DISPLAYS...how good is that?...here kids...you can have a burger or sausage...but...see those cows and pigs from earlier...now lets see them turned into your food?...sounds horrible to you veggie lot no doubt..but its real life..and gives the kids a choice to make themselves. Brilliant.

[Wild-Woman]

[quote=Dan Salter;169429]Makes you wish "points of view" was still on tv...

i didnt see it but im sure i would have been fuming...and given the reverse...a story about the trouble that orang's are in...bet your bottom dollar they would have been cooing over them....awww so cute...how sweet...lovely...etc. GRRRRR


And as for parents...dont even get me started. And to be honest...you cant blame those parents....sadly its THEIR parents fault...I am 34 and not yet a parent (though i cant wait to be) and am probably of similar age to those parents you witnessed.....I have a massive understanding of wildlife, life, the real world, culture, etc...and its mostly thanks to my uprbringing and my nan joining me up to the Y.O.C then the R.S.P.B as a child..plus my mum who was a nurse before i was born and watches any medical stuff on tv so i ended up being top of the class in biology...hence i would not have called a dissected heart disgusting...and had i had them already neither would my kids. Plus i (not for years) kept snakes and lizards and terantulas...so they would be used to those also.

But sadly im not normal...my generation ..the norm was to spend most of your time at the pub..or football matches...or weekends strung out on drugs at raves, parties, festivals, then the clubbing scene etc...doesnt leave much time for learning about the real world. Im about the only person out of most of my extended group of friends who has travelled around the world...climbed twice to everest base camp...seen dying leppers in india. And studied any wildlife i have come across since i was a child.

Im not saying this about ALL parents...indeed with my work with the wildlife trusts i smile all the time watching parents bring in their children for pond dipping etc...i think to myself..Thank god....some people still have the right idea. I also love what my hero Jimmy from Jimmy's farm has done to include kids activities, nature trail, petting zoos, but most of all BUTCHERY DISPLAYS...how good is that?...here kids...you can have a burger or sausage...but...see those cows and pigs from earlier...now lets see them turned into your food?...sounds horrible to you veggie lot no doubt..but its real life..and gives the kids a choice to make themselves. Brilliant.[/QUOTE

Well said Dan. I agree fully.
As you know, I work with children and there does seem to be a whole generation of folk,(but not all in that generation obviously) who missed a whole part of learning from actual experience and therefore live in, as someone already referred to,a sanitised and sterilised world.
I'd bring back the nature table in every classroom in this land, have pets day and get youngsters out in the field, learning from the very thing that their parents fear.
Get them dirty, pick up insects, instill a passion for conservation and grow up respecting nature and indeed each other and the spaces we live in.

It can be done, I've seen it happen, it's precisely what my two jobs are all about.

As for unbiased media -pathetic really. That's why I hardly bother watching TV anymore.

Ok-had my say.
Jules

[demicav]

I didn't see the programme but I'm sure I would have been very angry watching it myself. Society in which we live in today doesn't allow for children learning about the natural world. I agree fully Dan that children should be exposed to knowledge that will give them the choices. All 3 of my children know where their meat comes from, I've never hidden the fact that when they're enjoying their pork sausage a pig has died to provide it. Kids are a lot smarter than they are given credit and are more than capable of handling that information.
It's a vicious circle with many families, parents lack the information to pass on and the children cannot pass it on to their kids. I'm shocked myself sometimes how much my 3 know. They're 11, 9 and 5, and are way ahead of their class mates when it comes to wildlife and the natural world, but they have an advantage, they're constantly exposed to it. My 9yr old daughter amazed her teacher when she was 8 by saying how arachnids differ from insects, I am so proud of her.
I agree Jules it should be brought back to the class rooms.
As for Tarantulas being horrible, nothing could be further from the truth. They are lovely.