'Living With Tigers' Set To Maul Integrity

Ethan Switch - Monday, 8 September 2003 - 09:21:59 - print it raw

Well known to many is the sight of Disney pushing a swathe of lemmings off a cliff just to show you how stupid they are. Lessons are learnt and skin burnt for better pelt and the producers of The Discovery Channel are getting as many fingers as a stranger down a busy street swimming in drunks.

In this case it's the case of the tigers from one area misrepresented for another in an upcoming documentary entitled, Living With Tigers.

Throughout its production, the documentary was plagued, like Europe in the fourteenth century, with accusations of deception and trickery. "The film is a fraud," declares Stuart Bray, an American-born investor whose money was used to make the film. "And Discovery knows it's a fraud."

"Manipulating animal behavior for the sake of documentary film production is not ethical", says award-winning South African wildlife film maker Phil Hattingh, "this brings into question the film techniques employed in many of Jon Varty's documentary film productions."

The wrangling stems from the use of unendangered tigers for filming the conservation documentary. Money was taken and misdirected, animals coaxed into doing things they didn't even want to and the stench of lies is brewing more foul than the coffee in Austin Power's mouth. It's a circus for the big time.

21.12.2004 - Following an email from Joan that sparked a memory of this, an email was sent to Kate Reynolds from Save China's Tigers who provides the following links from the Wildlife Action Group and Wildlife Film News.