{"id":767893,"date":"2022-04-20T07:36:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T11:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=767893"},"modified":"2022-04-20T08:08:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T12:08:46","slug":"liars-dominate-faux-wildlife-photography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=767893","title":{"rendered":"‘LIARS DOMINATE’: Faux wildlife photography"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Photo-game-farm animals spend much of their lives in small cages with concrete floors and only enough space to turn around. Some are analogs of domestic puppy mills, breeding and selling wild animals such as wolves, foxes, and lynxes.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

TED WILLIAMS:<\/strong> In most forms of journalism, lies are frowned upon. Not so with wildlife photojournalism. Liars dominate. This galls me because I work with so many honest wildlife photographers who spend months getting shots the liars get in an hour. Consider the story from Finland, viral in the U.S. and Europe with 759,000 page views, of a wild wolf and brown bear that constantly nuzzle each other. \u201cUnusual Friendship,\u201d understates one title. \u201cNo one can know exactly why or how the young wolf and bear became friends,\u201d the photographer told the Daily Mail…<\/em><\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the epic \u201cwolf-grizzly brawl\u201d over blood-stained snow in Montana documented by a \u201cnature photographer.\u201d The story was first reported by The Sun and Daily Mail, then recycled 11,000 times on both sides of the Atlantic. The photos are stunning. The blood issued from a planted deer carcass. The grizzly and wolves were tame actors, incarcerated by Animals of Montana, an \u201canimal training service\u201d known for animal abuse, including illegal wildlife trafficking and Endangered Species Act violations. Before 2021, when the state shut down Animals of Montana, it was patronized by some of the world\u2019s most acclaimed \u201cwildlife photographers.\u201d Its website still exists…<\/em><\/p>\n

One person knows. That would be Melissa Groo, a soaring star in honest wildlife photojournalism, who is co-chairwoman of the International League of Conservation Photographers\u2019 Ethics Committee. \u201cThere\u2019s a huge business now in northern Europe baiting these animals (often with dog food) for photographers,\u201d she says. \u201cI can\u2019t even look at photos of these animals from Finland anymore”…<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo-game-farm animals \u201cspend much of their lives in small cages with concrete floors and only enough space to turn around,\u201d writes Groo in National Wildlife magazine. Some of these game farms, she learned from Freedom of Information requests, are analogs of \u201cdomestic puppy mills, breeding and selling wild animals such as wolves, foxes, and lynxes.\u201d Babies are taken from their mothers at early ages and sold to roadside zoos and exotic-pet dealers…<\/em><\/p>\n

Twelve years ago, I considered an undercover visit to Animals of Montana… But the violations already on its record spooked me. If I had exposed this outfit, the game-farm industry would accuse me of cherry-picking. Finally, I settled on Triple D Wildlife in Kalispell, Montana… <\/em>I felt bad for the wolves that spent most of their lives in a dark, dank enclosure. When I sprang Big John and Lakota from Triple D for a \u201cphotoshoot,\u201d the other 15 wolves cried. <\/em><\/p>\n

Big John and Lakota reveled in their brief freedom, fielding beef treats thrown by the trainer whenever they leaped over logs or pretended to snarl viciously. After his romp, Big John rolled on his back for a belly rub. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t have gotten those shots in the wild,\u201d Triple D co-owner Jay Deist declared angrily after I\u2019d asked questions not to his liking. He was right. <\/em>SOURCE…<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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