“Animal Planet Collaborated with Eco-Terrorists”

It’s called “The Puppy Bowl,” and you can’t get more extreme than that. Puppies knocking each other out of bounds, falling asleep in the water dish, peeing on the field. Sea Shepherd only wishes it were as tough.

lets not forget the “kitten half-time show”. you will surely be killed by the cuteness of said kittens.

I saw the video of Watson discovering he had been shot, it was faked! First the vest that Watson was wearing would only stop handgun rounds, its hard enough to hit someone with a handgun on land and almost impossible to hit someone at 200′ from the pitching deck of a ship to another pitching deck of a ship.

Second, Watson discovers he was “shot” some time after his attack on the whaleing vessel,that was a joke. Anyone who has ever been shot wearing a vest will tell you this…IT HURTS! Vest will stop the bullet but you know have been hit and it leaves a bruse where you were hit.

Wake up people Watson getting shot was jus a staged stunt in order to make him and his terrorist crew look like victims.

Will, I am not trying to label Animal Planet as eco-terrorist (Watson and his crew, yes). Staging dramatic stunts like Watson getting shot is not documenting anything, its creating fiction. Another question I have how come Watson was the only one wearing a vest and the only one who was hit?

Good luck with your masters, I know how hard it is to work full time and school too. I trying to finish mine now as well.

so lets say he wasnt shot and did fake the whole thing. the almost sad part is that he would have to fake being shot in the first place to get national attention, i think that says enough about the general public. that its not enough to see innocent whales being harpooned for “scientific research” but humans have to be affected somehow by it all to stop these attrcoities. its almost on par to the reasons why many whites began to support integration of schools: they felt their children would grow up in a diverse environment with children of all colors. nevermind the idea that integration may simply be fair and just for blacks alone and that is reason enough to support it. but in any social justice movement outsiders who dont necessarily support it have and still are always trying to find a way to benefit from it. maybe thats why the animal rights movement hasnt been as strong as it could be. we havent found ways to profit off the liberation of animals.

This article really brings back memories of my high school (maybe middle school?) insomnia, staying up till 4am and watching videos of some old guy with a big rusty ship hitting whaling ships. It was a forgotten memory until reading your article. Thanks!

I worked at the Mountain Film Festival one summer and there was a special documentary being shown on Watson and the Sea Shepherd and his past with Greenpeace. It was a really great film and we were able to ask questions to a couple of people who had previously been on the crew on voyages. I remember one thing in particular that he said about violence. That you couldn’t be violent to non-living things. I know there could be a hot debate over that statement, but I think its consistent with how exaggerated and over-used the T word is. When property, equipment, and profits are destroyed it is called terrorism, but when both human and non-human lives are taken it apparently is not always so.

Last time I skyped my mom from Japan she said she had seen the show and asked me about it. That it seemed like something I would be interested in. Shes a good mom. and she liked the show too.

Matthew ….In the video Watson pulls a rounded slug from the vest and shows it to the camera.

Okay, I have a somewhat unique perspective of this incident in that I was an Army Cavalry Scout for three years with an expert’s badge in rifle and pistol marksmanship and a CSI for several years after my tour of duty in the military.

Firstly, the shot itself. It would be INSANELY difficult to be able to pull off a single shot like that when both ships were moving at flanking speeds in very choppy waters made even more-so by their blended wakes. I can’t think of any one sniper in the world that could make that kind of shot with any kind of certainty. At the very best, it would be a shot of extreme luck. Also, the “bullet” that was pulled from Watson’s vest is much too large to have been fired from a rifle or even a handgun smaller than a .50 cal handgun. Also, from what I was able to tell from Animal Planet’s footage, it did not have the structural shape of any bullet I have ever seen before, both in the military and as a CSI. It looked like it was simply a hollowed out metal dome shape with jagged edges.

Secondly, it is only after the entire “battle” that Watson notes that he’s been shot. As stated on the show by the Japanese, when you get shot you know it. The impact is strong and it’s like getting slammed by a sledgehammer. No person who has been shot, especially by a round the size they claim they pulled from his vest which impacted against him so hard it dented his badge, would simply not notice it. Additionally, no bullet will maintain its shape after striking not only a bulletproof vest, but the metal badge beneath it with enough force to actually dent the badge as Watson claims. If he had really been shot, that bullet would have mushroomed at the tip and been completely flat not domed and perfectly shaped.

Thirdly, and most importantly, even if you believe that what Watson pulled from his vest was indeed a bullet, the impact and subsequent damage done to Watson don’t match. If you watch, the “round” was pulled from Watson’s vest with the bullet hole in the upper left pectoral area. When Watson shows off his “injury” as a result of the bullet strike, the bruise/scratch he claims the bullet left on his skin is located in the center of his chest in line with his chin. From all of the conversations on the show, there was some speculation that the pin of his badge caused the bruise/scratch when the bullet impacted it. The problem with this theory is that even if the badge was dented by a bullet strike, the pin of the badge is no where near long enough to cause a scratch in the location Watson indicated as his injury, no matter how much the badge was deformed by the strike. In a nutshell, there is no physical way Watson could have been struck by a bullet and sustain the injury he displayed.

What all of this means is, quite simply, the shooting was faked by Watson and his mental case cronies in an effort to try and justify his terrorist activities by pretending to be the poor victims. The fact that Animal Planet is documenting these people’s activities is quite disturbing. Despite the claim at the beginning of the show that the views of Sea Shepherd do not reflect the views of Discovery and Animal Planet, the producers have obviously tried to paint the Sea Shepherd terrorist organization in quite a positive light. Why the Sea Shepherd organization has not been shut down and the leaders thrown into prison is beyond comprehension because the only message it is sending is that you can act like pirates, thugs, and terrorists and get away with it no legal consequences and be sensationalized as a “hero”.

As foolish of a hope as it is, I hope that many members of varied governments have seen this show, take notice of it, and start taking legal action against this organization and have it dismantled and its members thrown in prison.

I am not an advocate of whaling and I do strongly believe in protecting the ecology and wildlife of our planet, but the line is drawn when you attack people who are operating legally (yes, the Japanese were operating their whaling efforts legally) and then lie about every single thing that is done both on your part and the part of your targets. Watson has said in the past that he has no problem going to prison to protect the whales yet every time he has been arrested and arraigned in the past he has fled before a trial could take place. That’s the act of a coward, not a humanitarian.

Here you are bickering about laws and what is legal and not legal, missing the point that no matter what human convention or law says, the slaughter of whales is a crime against nature, is barbaric, and sadistic. It is always right to save whales, and always wrong to kill them. Right is right and wrong is wrong, regardless of what the law sayes about it. What Hitler did was legal according to German laws that he had a hand in creating, but it was wrong. The right ones were those who broke the law to save jews. The true example of justice is one breaks corrupt laws created by evil people, in order to see justice observed. The world system is evil, and all centers around money. Any righteous people who dissent against the government puppets backed powerfull phsycopaths and terrorists like fur farms, factory farms, HLS, sport hunters, pesticide manufactures, ruthless land developers, chemical corporations, and the Japanese whale murderes are branded terrorists because they pose a threat to the satanic and evil ways of these powers. These whales are actually higher beings than humans, and any human that kills one should receive the death penalty immediatly.

The Sea Sheperds are engaging in terrorist activities, they (by their own definition) are attempting to scare the whalers from continuing their practice of killing whales. This article is bizarre in the fact that it unilaterally states that “Captain” (term used loosely) Paul was shot. This is a subject that is widely up for debate and that I doubt very much, based on the fact that the story was so romanticized by this childish imbecile (Uh huh, the bullet went through your bullet proof vest, uh huh, and you were only saved by you “save the whales” button? Hmmm?!)
These sophomoric and violent idiots are going to get themselves or someone else killed, probably on purpose, in order to bring attention to what they consider is a crime. Let’s remember Japan is voluntarily involved with the IWC, they could drop out at any time and kill as many whales as they feel since the Minke that they are hunting are in international waters, coincidentally, the Minke are one whale species that is not endangered, in fact their population has grown since the moratorium began in the 80′s. Remember also, that whaling represents less than 5% of non-natural whale deaths in the world, accidents in over-crowded shipping lanes represents over 75%
Take that Paul, and go eat ben and Jerry’s and tell college freshman how cool you once were, and how you almost did something really dumb to not even have a chance at changing the outcome for whales in the world.

Illegally boarding a vessel that is underway is a serious crime. The Japanese have every right to defend themselves and their restraint when it comes to dealing with the Sea Shepherds has been remarkable. The Japanese would be justified in shooting the Sea Shepherds when they attempt to board their vessel. I am always interested by comments that say the Sea Shepherds were held hostage by the Japanese. The Sea Shepherds were not held hostage; they were under arrest. From the moment they chose to illegally board a Japanese vessel they IMMEDIATELY fell under Japanese law. The Japanese have been far more tolerant of the illegal activities of the Sea Shepherds than they should be.

Sea Shepherd “savage attacks” on whalers include things like rotten butter filled bottles, tangling up propellers with rope. They are so violent they even banned the presence of Pete Bethune’s bow and arrows on their ship! Yes, whalers are right. Rotten butter is deadly!

I love how these whale doting retards always ignore the facts.  It’s laughable always.  And why do you morons only bring up Japan?  Huh?  You are only capable of regurgitating what Paul Watson feeds you right?  That’s clearly the case here.  Paul Watson himself is violating a ton of laws.  Why do you think that moron did not register any of his ships in USA and went with his equally money grubbing eco-terror loving retard friendly nation to register his boats?  Paul Watson is a criminal and a terrorist.  It’s that simple.

Paul Watson and his gang are criminals and terrorists.  They should be shot on sight and sunk to the bottom of the ocean like bin Laden.