Please bitch at the Weather Channel about this for me

[codjh9]

I'm a life-long environmentalist, and among the many things that make me angry on this subject are the throngs of people who are scared/ignorant of every single snake, lizard, bat, toad, etc. and want to kill every one of them they see. There's a lot of other hysteria about wildlife, too - on wolves, lots of things (yes, I know I'm preaching to the choir here). And the Weather Channel has been very good about talking about global warming, having in-depth programs on it, etc., so that made me even more surprised to see this:

On my 10-day weather forecast, at the lower right of the page - see if you get this when you go to your own 10-day forecast - there's a really stupid 'Outdoors poll' headed with this: 'Which of the following wildlife is most likely to have you quaking in your boots?', and then the choices are snake, bear, mountain lion, wolf, and - probably the stupidest - 'Are you kidding? All of the above.' As I'm sure most of you know, there's no recorded instance of wolves killing people in North American (I'm pretty sure of this); most snakes are non-poisonous (and even coral snakes, for example, have such a small mouth you'd practically have to stick your finger in their mouth to get bitten), and most black bears avoid people. True, grizzlies and mountain lions have killed people - but at least half of this is just plain stupid and wrong, and in general this 'poll' fits into the fears/ignorance too many people have about wildlife and the great outdoors (what's left of it) in this country.

I sent the WC an email about this a few days ago, but I'd sure like some additional support here. Email 'em! Thanks.

[wtmusic]

1. Meant to take the heat off Sarah Palin shooting wolves from the sky?

:tinfoilhat:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. The wildlife that scares me the most is the one that walks on two legs and carries a gun..MAN!

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Good catch! You should include the email for the Weather Channel. n/t

[codjh9]

4. Sorry - here's their Feedback page - hopefully it'll work for any of you.

http://www.weather.com/common/survey/feedback.html?from=footer

[Sal Minella]

5. That item doesn't show up on my weather dot com screen, but I wrote and complained at them anyway!

Stupid, STUPID idea for a poll.

[codjh9]

6. Hey, thanks! Both for complaining to 'em and what you said! You rock! :^)

[Sal Minella]

8. I do try to confront idiocy in my own tiny way at every opportunity.

Did you see the "fright" thread talking about pix of spiders and "maggots in a wound."

Prior to antibiotics, lucky indeed was the bearer of a wound that had managed to get maggots in it. That wound debridement method is being used again now, in fact. I haven't read anything about it lately, but certainly wouldn't hesitate to accept that treatment myself.

"Yucky" is in the mind of the beholder.

As in "Republicans are yucky." :)

[kristopher]

7. You have me a bit confused...

Those animals are ALL dangerous when encountered unexpectedly in the wild and they deserve a lot more respect than I think I see in your post. Just because 100% aren't fatal doesn't meant the deadly aren't there also. If a person isn't pretty familiar with these critters then fear is the healthiest state of being for them IMO.

I see nothing in the poll you described that would lead me to make the leap from healthy fear to mass slaughter of any animal encountered, so I'm not really sure where that came from. I suspect the people who usually DO kill these critters (except snakes, I agree that is usually irrational "better safe than sorry" type motive) are actually not doing it out of fear but more out of hubris and arrogance. At least, that's the way I see it.

[stuntcat]

9. I'm gonna write them

things like this just give The Stupid a little more excuse to team up against animals. What a silly-ass poll.
I have to wait a while to write, I think better later in the day :)