The Discovery Channel recently aired a new reality show this month called Wild Animal Repo, also known as WAR, starring Scott Lope, former Big Cat Rescue employee and Animal Planet’s Hero of the Year, 2009.
The premise of the WAR was to promote Scott Lope as one of America’s premier exotic reposessors, rescuing extraordinary and endangered exotic wild animals from unfit owners, illegal trade and harmful environments. Apparently, no animal was too dangerous or too forgotten for Scott Lope as he and his team recovered tigers, bears, monkeys, and many more all with the goal of finding them new worthy homes.
The premise of the WAR was to promote Scott Lope as one of America’s premier exotic reposessors, rescuing extraordinary and endangered exotic wild animals from unfit owners, illegal trade and harmful environments. Apparently, no animal was too dangerous or too forgotten for Scott Lope as he and his team recovered tigers, bears, monkeys, and many more all with the goal of finding them new worthy homes.
On the surface, this sounds like an interesting new reality show. After all, who would ever object to rescuing animals from unfit owners, the illegal animal trade industry or from harmful environments? Animal lovers should rejoice over this new kind of reality show, after all, Lope defeats the bad guys and the animals are rescued and taken to worthy new homes. Right? Not quite.
Sadly, like most reality shows shown on cable television, this particular show was "spiced up" to meet the audience's expectations of danger and drama. If WAR viewers did not know the history behind each animal rescue story shown, then viewers would never have known WAR was a complete farce.
WAO’s Historical Demise
For over five years and counting the Wild Animal Orphanage (WAO) has been under investigation for alleged misappropriation of funds and violations of the Animal Welfare Act. One of the charges made against the WAO Board of Directors was how the animals were used to generate charitable donations and then once the animals’ usefulness ended, so did their lives.
Caring volunteers tried for years to stop the animal abuse and protect the sanctuary, but were unsuccessful. Today, the WAO is closed to the public and the organization is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. If homes for approximately 150 animals are not found soon, they will undoubtedly be put to death.
This article was written from the stance of a former WAO animal caretaker and board of director of approximately 10 years, so the reader can be assured this review was written by someone familiar with the WAO animals "rescued" in this television show.
This article was written from the stance of a former WAO animal caretaker and board of director of approximately 10 years, so the reader can be assured this review was written by someone familiar with the WAO animals "rescued" in this television show.
Scott Lope and his WAR crew descended upon the WAO like a flock of vultures in the Fall of 2010. Lope heard that the WAO closed its doors earlier that year and decided to capitalize on this tragedy, by covering the relocation of the WAO’s 22 bears and 25 capuchin monkeys.
The decision to relocate the bears to The Wild Animal Sanctuary (WAS) and the non-human primates to Jungle Friends (JF) was made prior to Lope’s interest in the WAO story—Lope was never involved in finding “worthy homes” for the WAO animals, this act was accomplished by the now defunct WAO and the wild animal sanctuaries involved.
When the Discovery Channel first announced the season premiere of WAR, everyone who was involved in WAO investigation case anxiously awaited to see how this new television series would cover the relocation of the WAO animals. Three WAR teasers were made available by the Discovery Channel shortly before the series’ air date of January 16, 2011. The WAO investigation volunteers viewed the two videos that pertained to the WAO and were absolutely shocked at what they saw posted on the Discovery Channel’s web site.
WAR Declared Against WAO
“Don’t miss the new series ‘Wild Animal Repo’ on Discovery next Sunday, January 16th 9 pm and midnight. Scott Lope heads to Texas to rescue a troop of capuchin monkeys from a soon to be demolished roadside zoo! The monkeys find a safe haven at Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary. Scott also rescues 22 bears from a suspected breeding facility and six tigers in flimsy cages.”
Jungle Friend’s Facebook page
The first video viewed was the teaser for the 22 WAO bears’ relocation.
Even though WAR never released the facility’s name, it was obvious to WAO current and former board directors, employees, and volunteers, WAR covered the relocation of the Talley Road WAO's bears. What was unexpected to the viewing audience was the claim that the bears were used for some sort of breeding program. The entire confrontation scene between Lope and the so-called “breeders” was a complete farce. The actors, posing as “breeders” were not from the WAO and therefore must have been part of the WAR filming crew.
The second video teaser was just as disturbing as the first video. In the second video teaser, Lope claimed he was rescuing 25 capuchin monkeys from a “roadside zoo.”
Since the monkeys lived at the WAO’s Leslie Road facility, it was very obvious to WAO current and former board directors, employees, volunteers, and tours (as this property was open to the general public) WAR was, again, covering the relocation of the WAO animals. The claim that the capuchin monkeys were from a roadside zoo was another falsehood made by Lope’s WAR on the WAO animals.
For Lope to claim the capuchin monkeys were from a “roadside zoo” denigrates the animals that were sent to the WAO by various animal welfare groups such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare, United States Department of Agriculture, Humane Society of the United States, and other well-known animal agencies.
It was clear in this video, Lope never worked around capuchin monkeys. For you see, no respectable primate keeper would ever enter a primate enclosure unknown to the person for fear of upsetting or unintentionally harming the animals. It was clear in this video, the WAO capuchins, normally a happy friendly group of primates, were riled up by Lope’s attempts to capture them with a gigantic butterfly net. Lope not only placed himself in danger, but he also risked harming the very animals he professed needed his help. The WAO capuchin monkeys looked absolutely terrified in this short video teaser.
To the relief of the those who tried so hard to save the WAO animals, WAR was removed from the TV line-up several hours prior to its scheduled air time.
WAR Was Declared Once Again Against the WAO Animals
Like a bad penny, WAR resurfaced in May of this year. This time, the Discovery Channel did not go out of its way to advertise the season premiere of WAR. Three teaser videos were, once again, posted to its site, and then promptly removed a couple of days prior to WAR’s show date.
On May 8, 2011, the Discovery Channel aired the season premiere of "WAR." This review will concentrate on two of the so-called "rescues" shown in this episode as they pertained to the failed Texas sanctuary.
The first story centered on the re-homing of 22 bears from the Wild Animal Orphanage, located in the city of San Antonio and the County of Bexar (pronounced bear) to the Wild Animal Sanctuary located in Colorado. No doubt the name of the failed sanctuary was not announced so as not to confuse the television viewers of the similar named facilities.
First of all, the WAO bears were not living at a "good" sanctuary having financial problems. The WAO was, and still is at the time of this writing, under investigation by the Texas Office of the Attorney General and the USDA/APHIS. For the last five years, this facility has been under investigation for misappropriation of funds, money laundering, falsifying government tax returns, and violations of the Animal Welfare Act.
The 22 bears in question lived in tiny quarantine concrete cages for YEARS before they were re-homed to the WAS. Contributions, totaling over $100k, made towards the bears' natural habitats were not used to complete the habitats. Health care for the bears was essentially non-existent and wounds or age related ailments went untreated. One particular bear named Pooh Bear, back in 2009, was forced to suffer for approximately two weeks from stroke which left him paralyzed on one side of his body, until he was finally euthanized.
In 2003, three bears living at Talley Road were shot and killed during the testing phase of the newly created "play area" for the bears. Despite the electrical barriers that surrounded the enclosure's walls, the bears attempted to climb out of the enclosure and were subsequently shot to death by Ron Asvestas.
The WAO bears lived in such tiny cages for so long without public interaction for years that whenever a new person visited the bears, the animals showed immense curiosity, not aggression towards the newcomer. In this next video, the bears appeared to fear Scott Lope as he made his night-time "recon" visit to the bears quarantine area.
Professional animal rescuers would never do a "recon" visit of an unknown facility at night. The WAO property had no outside lights used for illuminating the grounds and animal enclosures, therefore maneuvering around the narrow concrete path separating the two sides of the quarantine bear cages was extremely foolish. It appeared Lope and his camera crew banged on the bear enclosures several times while filming, causing the bears to panic. Keep in mind, the bears were forced to live in small cages which did not allow them to "hide" from unwanted visitors. Strangers banging and shouting profanities around the bears' home caused these animals undue panic which probably resulted in stressing out the bears even further prior to their actual relocation to Colorado the next day.
This particular scene had all the earmarks of provoking bears so as to make them appear more aggressive than they actually were at the time of filming. A "real" rescuer would never instill fear into the animals he or she planned to relocate. Doing so would be irresponsible and extremely dangerous for the animals and the relocation team.
This next video exemplifies what NOT to do when transporting bears.
Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS)... Secondly, I don't enjoy watching humans in enclosures with non-sedated, dangerous wildlife. It is risky to the humans and traumatizing to the animals. Especially so when negative and threatening techniques are used to move the animals. There ARE better ways, far less traumatizing to the animals.....those ways just don't make for exciting footage.GFAS Facebook comment made on May 10 at 9:23am
For many viewers, this segment of WAR was very disturbing, especially to those individuals who were aware of what the bears had to endure while living at the WAO. The 22 bears could have been loaded onto the transporters by the WAO staff who knew these animals very well, thereby alleviating their fear and stress. Capturing "dangerous" wild animal behavior was more important to the WAR film crew than the health and welfare of the actual animals. Since the public demands exciting animal and human confrontational scenes, this type of film making will undoubtedly continue until a person is either hurt or killed.
Interesting to note, when the WAR camera crew was not in sight, the bears were "gently coaxed" into the transporters, proving that it was possible to move the animals without threatening the bears with metal poles.
Animals should be moved with the greatest of care, especially if one does not know the current mental or physical health conditions of the animals.
Due to the bears' inhumane containment in small WAO quarantine cages and the lack of medical care they received over the years, several of the WAO bears had serious health issues as described in the Wild Animal Sanctuary's Spring Newsletter:
WAS Spring Newsletter - 2011
All efforts should have been made to comfortably move the animals from one location to another--especially since WAR and WAS did not know the health conditions of the animals.
To dump an animal like that with no consideration of the spine or neck was very disturbing. If a private owner had done something like this, I have no doubt the rabid AR people would be demanding the removal of the bear from the private owner. Am I right, or what?
Interesting to note, when the WAR camera crew was not in sight, the bears were "gently coaxed" into the transporters, proving that it was possible to move the animals without threatening the bears with metal poles.
Animals should be moved with the greatest of care, especially if one does not know the current mental or physical health conditions of the animals.
Due to the bears' inhumane containment in small WAO quarantine cages and the lack of medical care they received over the years, several of the WAO bears had serious health issues as described in the Wild Animal Sanctuary's Spring Newsletter:
WAS Spring Newsletter - 2011
All efforts should have been made to comfortably move the animals from one location to another--especially since WAR and WAS did not know the health conditions of the animals.
To dump an animal like that with no consideration of the spine or neck was very disturbing. If a private owner had done something like this, I have no doubt the rabid AR people would be demanding the removal of the bear from the private owner. Am I right, or what?
Here is another example of a confrontational scene between a human and an exotic wild animal used to make the WAR story more "exciting" to the television viewers.
Clearly the person, who is wearing the heavy work boots, kicked the bear without any provocation other than to "annoy" the animal. This was a horrifying scene for many viewers simply because it showed to the viewing public, especially young impressionable children, that it was okay to kick the bear without any reasonable justification. The bear looked relaxed and compliant in the transporter, reaching for a treat from an individual outside the portable cage, when she was kicked from behind. This type of negative re-enforcement should not be accepted by the sanctuary community at-large as it does not accurately portray what really happens during a legitimate animal rescue.
Out of all the film footage filmed and produced by the WAR camera crew, the Discovery Channel chose to air some of the worst bear "rescuing" scenes ever shown to the general public--and for what? Profits? Ratings?
WAR Declared Against Small "Dangerous" Monkeys
FYI - San Antonio is in Bexar County!
More lying. Another exotic sanctuary in trouble? It was the SAME one, Scott! How the heck someone can blatantly lie on TV is beyond me. Shameful.
As to the "former owners" (wink wink nod nod), I seriously doubt the Asvestas even knew that the monks were relocating to Jungle Friends. I do not believe the Asvestas would have tried to "sabotage" their relocation to Florida, simply because I believe they never cared about the animals in the first place.
Oh, p-l-e-a-s-e. Hiring security guards? What SAPD or the Bexar County Sheriff's Office didn't want to perform on cue? I guess the "guards" added some more "danger" to this story.
Poor Spazz. He is absolutely beside himself with fright. Obviously Spazz was riled up to make a negative impression on camera.
Oh my goodness, it was clear to me that Spazz was the "alpha male." Concerned for his welfare, I turned to my friends for help, as Jungle Friends refused to respond to my previous email correspondence on Spazz earlier this year. Perhaps they will have better luck corresponding with Jungle Friends than I.
Last month, one such friend emailed me with information about the capuchins. The emails were sent to me because he wasn't sure how to respond to Jungle Friends' last email he received from this organization and he honestly didn’t believe they would ever respond to any more of his inquires based on what he read in the last email received. After reading this email I understood why he was concerned.
I have been toying on whether or not to respond directly to Jungle Friends regarding the last email sent to my friend regarding his inquiry into one of the former WAO capuchin monkeys named Spazz as something was clearly amiss.
Why was I so concerned over the email traffic regarding the former WAO capuchins? See this page for the necropsy report: http://letyourhearttakecourage.blogspot.com/2011/05/spooks-death-hidden-from-public.html and then read the requests for information about the monks from a friend of mine who wanted to learn more about what happened to Spazz:
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 5:13 PM
To: Kari Bagnall
Cc: koreymonde@aol.com; tracey@junglefriends.org
Subject: Re: FW: Phinneas necropsy
Hi Kari,
Tammy and I figured you haven't had a chance to get back to us because of all the hectic actities at Jungle Friends, so we are hoping that maybe Tracey or Korey can get back with us on how the San Antonio Wildlife Animal Orphanage monkeys are doing.
We looked over your website, hoping to find some mention of the adult monkeys that moved to your sanctuary, but we could not find any pictures or videos (except for the babies). Will they be added to your site as well soon?
We also noticed another Jungle Friends Facebook friend asked how Spaz was doing at Jungle Friends, but no one answered her question. Geez, does this mean this little guy didn't make it either?
This story really interest us as used to enjoy watching the Wildlife Animal Orphanage's monkeys play while they were still here and so we'd like to know how they are all faring today.
Again, thanks for putting up with our intrusion and look forward to hearing from you sometime soon.
-signed-
From: Kari Bagnall
Subject: WAO monkeys...
To:
Cc: "'Tracey - Jungle Friends'"
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2011, 4:54 PM
I did reply to the person inquiring about Spaz, and Spaz is just fine, and Lee said she was going to send him a photo of Spaz, but we are pretty busy with over 100 monkeys!! What do you want to know about Spaz? We are way behind on our website, we are actually in the process of developing a new website. All of the monkeys are doing fine, if you go to the website and click on why do we have baby monkeys here on the left side bar, you will learn more about the WAO monkeys, there are links and videos. Why don’t you just come for a visit and see for yourself, we REALLY have our hands full. I am not sure what you are looking for now or what you need to know or what you want me to do?? What we need is financial support, so PLEASE make a donation TODAY, we need funds to care for all of the new monkeys, won’t you help?!
Yikes! No monkey love here, huh? Okay, this email raised my suspicions as this would be a typical "Asvestas" reaction. First of all, from what my friend was able to learn, no one contacted the person that "be-friend" Jungle Friends Facebook page. The question was totally left unanswered -- not surprisingly. It took a while to review all the old Jungle Friends postings, but I did find the posting in question that was not answered:
Lisa Alarcon
My family and I watched WAR a couple of weeks ago and we saw that Jungle Friends opened its doors to the monkeys from San Antonio. My daughter and I enjoyed several visits to the sanctuary and so we were wondering how the monkey with the blond fur (slightly balding on the top!), who likes to throw rocks and other items out of his hom...e, is settling in his new home? We found him to be quite the character! I think his name was Spaz but I'm not completely sure. He was the monkey that was featured on KENS-TV years ago each week as he "choose" the little toy helmet of the team he hoped would win during football season. We'd love to have an update on this cutie, please! Thanks guys!See More
May 20 at 1:33pm •LikeUnlike •
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As of today, June 7, 2011, there was no response to her Facebook posting. It appears someone lied about responding to the posting made by Lisa Alarcon back on May 20, 2011.
One of the tactics I recognized from the “Asvestas’ playbook” was to turn tables on the person inquiring on the WAO animals by laying out a guilt trip. Usually, it starts off with “we are just too busy to respond to your questions”…yada yada yada. Then, instead of discussing the animal(s) in question, the inquirer is directed to look at other animals owned by the sanctuary. In this case, my friend was directed to re-watch videos of the baby monkeys on Jungle Friends’ website after he stated he had already done so. My friend and I checked over Jungle Friends’ website together and we were only able to find videos and pictures of the baby capuchins born at Jungle Friends. There were no updates on the WAO capuchins after they arrived posted on the website or Facebook.
None of the former WAO capuchins were listed on the "Meet Our Monkeys" (capuchin) page and one of the WAO capuchin, who died shortly after arriving at Jungle Friends, was not even listed on the “Monkeys Memorial” web page.
Since the monkey died in 2010, there was no reason why he could not have been memorialized, just like another Jungle Friends’ monkey named Cappy, who died in 2011. Why didn’t the former WAO capuchin warrant remembrance? Was it because Jungle Friends didn’t want the public to know that WAR’s mean alpha male monkey was already dead?
And yet, Jungle Friends over exposed the former WAO’s baby monkeys all over its website and on their Facebook page for almost a month now. Soooo, the sanctuary has time to post the baby pictures and videos, because why (?), the babies are cute and adorable, while the older adults are not?
Another classic “Asvestas” maneuver was to tell anyone doubting the care of the animals to “come and visit us so you can see for yourself how the animals are doing.” This offer was even extended to people whose animals were living at the non-regulated, non-inspected, not-open-to-the-public Talley Road property. So, if someone actually showed up at the WAO, the person would be turned away due to an emergency situation, or there was no one to take the person around the Talley facility, etc, etc, etc. In most cases, this offer was only extended to people who lived out-of-state, knowing that the odds of this person actually showing up to see the animals were slim to none.
Not surprisingly, Kari Bagnall's similar response to my friend reminded me of the classic "Asvestas" maneuver -- making the visit offer to my friend whom she knew lived in Texas. So could my friend see Spazz if he really wanted to?
According to Jungle Friends' website:
We are frequently asked about visiting the monkeys or touring the Sanctuary. Because Jungle Friends is a true sanctuary, following all the requirements of the American Sanctuary Association, there is no public access to the grounds. http://www.junglefriends.org/visit.shtml
Kari Bangall’s email closing line was very odd to say the least and after reading it, I advised my friend to stay away from donating to this sanctuary for this email closing was just too weird for me—and my friend agreed.
What I cannot understand is that if the sanctuary needs money TODAY, then why is it contemplating taking in more animals soon? I guess badly needed donations are not for the WAO monks. This was taken from Jungle Friends' Facebook page:
Two words come to mind: Déjà vu.
Kari Bagnall
Over the years, Jungle Friends has been asked to take in hundreds of monkeys from research laboratories. We are extremely happy with this trend of retiring monkeys from research, but we need your help! We were recently asked if we could offer a home to 10 squirrel monkeys if they were freed from research, but we need your help to help them. http://www.junglefriends.org/researchretirement.shtml Monday at 9:15am
From: koreymonde@aol.com
Subject: Re: Phinneas necropsy
To: kari@junglefriends.org, connie@junglefriends.org
Cc: tracey@junglefriends.org
Date: Thursday, May 26, 2011, 4:56 PM
Connie the email I sent you yesterday with Spaz and friends in it will you forward them to Mark. As to the facebook one that was answered,
Thanks
Lee
From: Connie - Jungle Friends connie@junglefriends.org
Subject: Spaz pictures
Cc: "'Kari Bagnall'" , koreymonde@aol.com
Date: Friday, May 27, 2011, 2:58 PM
This is Spazz
Hi -
Lee asked me to forward these to you. I'll also look for a good place for them on our Jungle Friends website.
Let me know if I can do anything else for you --
Connie
Connie Allen
Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary
13915 N. State Road 121
Gainesville FL 32653
Email: connie@junglefriends.org
NOT Spazz
Probably NOT Spazz
Okay, here is where things get really weird. Out of the three photos sent to me, as far as I can tell (and it was confirmed by a former WAO employee), only one photo was of Spazz. I believe the second photo was that of a female capuchin that used to make the same “face” while living at the WAO. The third pictures was of a monk's tail--no way to know if this was really Spazz' tail--odds are it probably did not belong to Spazz.
Poor Spazz—what happened to him? Why did Jungle Friends tried to pass off a female monk as Spazz? Why did they change Spazz' name from "Spazz" to "Phinneas?" What are they trying to hide?
I noticed there was no mention when the photos were taken by Jungle Friends. For all we knew, the Spazz photo could have been taken when he first arrived at Jungle Friends. He looks so sad in the one photo.
I suggested my friend contact the person who sent him the photos and ask when they were taken. He did and thus far he reported he has not received a single response back from Jungle Friends.
Subject: Re: Spaz pictures
To: "Connie - Jungle Friends"
Date: Thursday, June 2, 2011, 9:17 AM
Hi Connie -
I wanted to thank you for the pictures you sent me regarding Spaz. I'm sorry if the request caused you any problems with Jungle Friends.
I, along with several friends, worked hard to change the living conditions of the former WAO animals (the place is now closed and placing the animals in better homes) for years. We never anticipated the WAO going out of business.
There are a few animals all of us have silently adopted and the capuchin monkeys happen to be some of my favorite animals to watch. I didn't know Spazz that well (just a few months) but it was enough for me to wonder how he was doing in his new home.
The pictures you sent me, were they recent pictures? Can you tell me when they were taken? If they were taken awhile ago, could you, when you get the chance, send me some current photos of the boy and the other 23 monkeys living with him, please?
Thank you Connie and again, sorry for all the ruckus over the photos.
-signed-
I'm shocked -- no response...really?
In any case, I’ve advised my friends not to expect to see any mention of the former WAO monks (except for their BABIES of course) on Jungle Friends' website anytime soon. There have been quite a few updates made to the Jungle Friends' website, but alas, nothing about the former WAO adult monks. I guess they served their purpose when they were seen (terrorized) on Discovery Channel’s WAR that aired this month and possibly next month--the final page taken right out of the "Asvestas" handbook.
From: Kari Bagnall kari@junglefriends.org
Subject: RE: Spaz pictures
To: "'Connie - Jungle Friends'"
Cc: koreymonde@aol.com, , "'CJ - Jungle Friends'" , "'Tracey - Jungle Friends'"
Date: Friday, May 27, 2011, 3:22 PM
Hi Connie, They are not going on the Jungle Friends website anytime soon, we are in the process of redoing the site and we are concentrating on the monkeys who are already up there whose pages need updating, we also have monkeys who have arrived prior to the WAO monkeys who are not up there yet, so they must take their turn!! Feel free to post them on Facebook in our photo gallery, but get with Lee about comments, etc. thanks, Kari
I’ve known for years that Kari Bagnall and Carol Asvestas were pretty good friends for a long time. Kari was even listed on Carol Asvestas’ new venture website, ASAP, as one of her “committee” members for several months until all the committee names were removed!
You know, for years I've complained about how the WAO failed to be honest with individuals inquiring about the WAO animals and about all the false or missing information posted on its website.
Over the years, I've wondered if this type of behavior happened at other sanctuaries besides the WAO.
I guess I now have my answer to that question.
So which monkey died? Spooky or Spazz? I guess I will never know for sure, but my gut says it was Spazz. What does your gut tell you?
How terrifying it must have been for the monk to have a stranger waving around a huge butterfly net, trying to capture him. Scott Lope was lucky that he caught the capuchin just as he fell from the top of the enclosure; a fall from that height could have been absolutely disastrous. Scott Lope had no business being in that cage in the first place--he risked the lives of the monks for no reason other than he wanted to be on camera to demonstrate his prowess with a giant butterfly net. You know, the security guards should have been there to protect the monks from Lope instead of the Asvestas!
"Don't try this at home, but we are short handed." Truer words were never spoken with the added caveat that this should not have been done "anywhere." Shorthanded? What happened to the all people that showed up to move the monks? What, did they all go home? Poor Scott Lope, rescuing the monks with little to no help what-so-ever, huh? Yeah, right.
Shaken baby monkey syndrome. Need I say more?
On a personal note, when I watched the WAR against the WAO animals, I cried through the entire show. I cried because I knew how terrified and confused the WAO animals must have been the day before and after the animals' relocation. They received terrible care by the WAO staff and board of directors for years. To yell, poke, kick, and scare the animals, all for ratings on their last days in San Antonio, simply broke my heart. They deserved better. Much better.
On a personal note, when I watched the WAR against the WAO animals, I cried through the entire show. I cried because I knew how terrified and confused the WAO animals must have been the day before and after the animals' relocation. They received terrible care by the WAO staff and board of directors for years. To yell, poke, kick, and scare the animals, all for ratings on their last days in San Antonio, simply broke my heart. They deserved better. Much better.
Animal Politics
I realize there are people out there, whom after reading this review, will no doubt continue to support Scott Lope and his WAR show, no matter what he does in the animal community simply because of his "good intentions." The following postings were taken from Scott Lope's Facebook page:
Hey Scott...Friday morning May 20th already...WOW! Got friends and family every sector of the country addicted to W.A.R. ...even friends in Puerto Rico checking to see if they can pick it up....can't wait for Sunday's show .... Hope you're doing well buddy ... I'll be watching early & late...with the RED SOX vs. CUBS in between ... you know me...lol! :-)) May 20, 2011
Mary Anne Nowak
Hey Scott, appears they gave the show the correct acronym of W.A.R. cause it sure is causing lots of controversy! Keep up the great work. Our side of the story needs to be told:)
Kari Bagnall (Jungle Friends Owner)
Wednesday at 4:09pm · · · See Friendship May 18, 2011
Scot Allen
Wednesday at 2:51pm via iPhone · · May 18, 2011
Meredith Zahara
May 8 at 9:03pm · ·
Honey Wayton
May 8 at 8:04pm · · 2 people like this.
Tammy Quist Thies (Wildcat Sanctuary’s owner)
Thanks Scott. And thank you and all the sanctuaries that help animals everyday. We are all in this together.
May 8 at 8:18pm ·
There are many political animal organizations and sanctuaries that spout their good intentions, however, when one measures the results of those good intentions; they often find the expected results to fall short of its mark.
Throughout the entire Wild Animal Orphanage investigation, the board of directors reiterating over and over again the Asvestas' "good intentions" as it related to animal care and good stewardship of the donors contributions. The results of those "good intentions" fell very short of the stated WAO mission's "mark." Ironically, despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are still Asvestas supporters out there whom will never admit the former board of directors did anything wrong to the animals or misused donor contributions.
Welcome to the wonderful world of animal politics. The sad thing is, animal politics rarely benefits the animals. It usually benefits a small group of individuals, willing to compromise their fundamental core beliefs (assuming they even have core beliefs), simply because of an ideal or "for the greater good." What people do not realize is when you start lying about a stated mission or goal, it ends up snow balling out of control resulting in a disastrous situation for the animals involved--the innocent victims of "good intentions." If one has to lie to make a political point, then his or her entire premise is false and will ultimately damage the reputation of the group(s) involved and possibly destroy the very animals they purport to care about.
The unintentional consequence of this show is that private exotic owners, in trouble either with the law or finances, will be afraid to place their animals with a sanctuary simply because of the way the animals were treated during the so-called rescues shown on WAR. This show really put a black eye on sanctuaries in general. If a private owner was caught on film doing the things Scott Lope did on this show, I can assure you that all the animal rights groups would be howling for criminal charges to be filed against the owner. But I guess if animal sanctuary personnel perpetrate these same acts, it must be okay in the eyes of the animal rights industry and the general public. Again, the old double standard of "do what I say and not what I do applies" applies to only the private exotic animal owners, right?
Shameful.
The unintentional consequence of this show is that private exotic owners, in trouble either with the law or finances, will be afraid to place their animals with a sanctuary simply because of the way the animals were treated during the so-called rescues shown on WAR. This show really put a black eye on sanctuaries in general. If a private owner was caught on film doing the things Scott Lope did on this show, I can assure you that all the animal rights groups would be howling for criminal charges to be filed against the owner. But I guess if animal sanctuary personnel perpetrate these same acts, it must be okay in the eyes of the animal rights industry and the general public. Again, the old double standard of "do what I say and not what I do applies" applies to only the private exotic animal owners, right?
Shameful.
The Discovery Channel needs to pay more attention to the type of television programs it supports as it relates to animal welfare. Real animal rescuing may not be glamorous or exciting, but for the animals in need, it means the world to them. It's time to put WAR back on the dusty shelf and instead let's encourage the Discovery Channel to produce family friendly shows that praises and raises animals upward instead of denigrating them on national television.
Here are a few clips from the same show, this time Scott Lope is "rescuing tigers" from Leona, Texas. Again, this was all staged.
Poke, poke. Poor tiger -- way too many people around the semi-sedated tiger. No doubt the tiger was fighting hard against the sedation due to a high level of stress and anxiety he was feeling. The solution? More drugs!
Ouch! Did you flinch went the tiger fell head first too?
Again, the solution is more drugs huh? Yes, let's risk the tiger's life, just so he and the camera crew (all whom are staring at this tiger) can feel safe as they continue to gawk at the tiger.
How about leaving the tiger alone for goodness sakes. If the tiger was left in a quiet area with no gawkers and camera crew around, perhaps the tiger may have settled down on his own. The tiger could have died from having too much adrenalin and drugs flowing through his system. Thank goodness, he made it out of there alive, despite Lope's horrible interference.
As to the nonsense Scott Lope's so-called vet spouted about it being harder to tranquilize white tigers because of their breeding is absolute hog-wash with no basis in fact. Anyone who worked around tigers would know that this statement was simply made-up on the fly, presumably to excuse why the tiger was thrashing around so much with all on on-lookers standing around him. Simply put, when big cats are relaxed and not stressed out, tranquilizers, if absolutely needed, work much, much better. Ideally it is best to develop a trust relationship with the animal(s) so no drugs are needed at all.
It was bad enough the animals were treated poorly during the filming of WAR, but to show Scott Lope "calling" the Sheriff's Office to report a "supposed" intruder on the property, was simply over the top.
("Police" did not respond to the fake call--only the
Deputy Sheriffs were present as pre-arranged by Lope's WAR crew)
Scott Lope's hubris was so great he totally faked this call to the Sheriff's Office, claiming he and the tigers needed law enforcement assistance because of an intruder on the property.
How do I know Scott Lope out and out lied about about this fake call?
Simple.
I called the Leon County (Leona is a city in Leon County) Sheriff's Office and spoke first with the dispatcher (she could find no record of the supposed call made by Lope) and then with the Sheriff's secretary (it's a small Sheriff's Office compared to that of Bexar County). It just so happened that one of the deputies that was seen on WAR was at the secretary's desk at the time of my call. From what I learned, not only did Scott Lope not place the call to the Leon County Sheriff's Office, Lope failed to tell the viewing audience that someone from his production company arranged, in advance, to have the deputies on-site just in case one of the tigers accidentally got lose. The County deputies had no idea they were going to be "used" in such a manner as shown on WAR. I could hear the deputy in the background telling the secretary that there were a lot of things in the WAR show that were not true. Surprised. Surprised. Surprised.
You know, it's bad enough I can no longer watch Animal Planet simply because they refuse to stop showing "Growing Up Lion," despite being notified that most of the animals seen in this show have been dead for many years. Now it looks like I'll have to take Discovery Channel off my list of good programming.
I don't think I will ever watch another Discover Channel show again, unless this cable company starts producing quality shows. WAR was a complete disgrace and I hope I never hear about this show ever again. How about you?
Later:
The following was found on Scott Lope's Facebook page:
Douglas Sellers
thanks Scott! how is the feedback for your shows going?
June 20 at 8:09am
Scott Lope
WAO Bear
Hey Doug, the response to the show has been great , everyone seems to really like it ... so now we just have to wait to see what happens next !
Douglas Sellers
excellent!!!
Not everyone, Scott. Not everyone.
Later:
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| click on picture toenlarge |
Kari Bangall said the "alpha" monkey featured on WAR died. She claimed the name of the monkey that died was Spooky.
Spooky, listed on the Inventory list, was a Brown (also known as Tufted) Capuchin. This is what a Brown Capuchin monkey looks like (see left).
Spazz was listed as a White-Throated Capuchin. Again, here is a picture of Spazz (see right).
Disgraceful!
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