Paul Sassone

So, I have my bowl of popcorn. The TV is tuned to Channel 11, the good channel. I am comfortable and ready to be entertained.

Ah, this looks entertaining. On the screen is a cute seal sunning itself on a rock.

Seals always make me smile and feel good. They’re kind of like dogs wearing clown shoes. Whenever I would go to the zoo I’d always make a point of visiting them to watch them swim and flop around and make that sweet honking sound.

But the seal I was watching on TV didn’t do any of these adorable things — because a huge killer whale leaped out of the water and clamped its jaws around the seal’s middle. The last I saw of the seal was its look of pain and terror as the whale ate it.

I didn’t want any more popcorn.

What the hell was I watching?

And on Channel 11! My window to the world! Public TV!

Ah, it was a nature show.

My wife calls nature shows, “Animals eating animals shows.’’

I call them animal snuff films.

I don’t know what got into me turning on a nature show.

Nature means death on TV shows.

Yes, yes, yes, I know death is part of life. And yes, yes, yes I know that how animals stay alive is by eating other animals — at least in the wild. I just open a can beef and liver for my cat. And yes, yes, yes I am not a vegetarian, so animals are killed on my behalf and
which I then eat.

But, is watching actual death, actual death agony, entertainment?

And it’s not educational, even if produced by PBS. We know about death. Watching something die doesn’t teach us anything more about death.

The point can only be entertainment. And that is wrong. I feel it.

Just as I feel hunting is wrong unless the hunter actually needs the meat.

Why do some people derive pleasure from watching death or bringing death?

I don’t know.

Me? I just like to watch furry animals cavorting and acting cute. Can’t be sure that’s all I’ll see on nature shows. So, I can’t watch them.

Maybe I’m wrong, though. Perhaps I should get a camera and drive around taking pictures of mashed raccoons, badgers, dogs, cats and squirrels along the roadside.

I’d call it, “Road Kill — Where Man and Nature Collide.’’

That’s real life, too.

— What’s entertaining about animals eating animals?–