Wildlife documentaries infringe animals' privacy, says report

Wildlife documentaries infringe animals' privacy, says report

Humans assume other species have no right to privacy during 'intimate moments', says author of study

Wildlife documentary makers are infringing animals' rights to privacy by filming their most private and intimate moments, according to a new study.

Footage of animals giving birth in their burrows or mating crosses an ethical line that film-makers should respect, according to Brett Mills, a lecturer in film studies at the University of East Anglia.

Mills compiled a report on animals' rights to privacy after reviewing scenes from the BBC's 2009 wildlife series "Nature's Great Events". Among the offending footage was film of a narwhal whale that appeared to have retreated from view beneath the Arctic ice sheet.

"Instead of thinking we'll leave it alone, film-makers decide the only solution is to develop new technology so they can film it," Mills said.

"We have an assumption that humans have some right to privacy, so why do we not assume that for other species, particularly when they are engaging in behaviour that suggests they don't want to be seen?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/29/wildlife-films-infringe-privacy

Too much Fern Gully. :rofl:

at least in US jurisprudence

note: animal cruelty laws etc. don't establish or recognize animal rights, merely affirmative duties towards human behavior

one of the most soft-headed things I've ever seen.

it would be those old clips of Jim Fowler wrestling boa constrictors in Marlin Perkins'/Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom

(Perkins' narration) "Jim could be in trouble here..." :rofl: