Over the weekend, two big and important wild animal stories broke.

The first involved the decision by Thomas Cook to stop selling holidays involving Sea World and Loro Parque, a captive marine facility in Tenerife.

The second involved the shooting of a polar bear following an incident with guests from the MS Bremen cruise liner operated by Hapag-Lloyd Cruises while visiting Svalbard, Norway. Apparently, the visitors, together with a guard, approached the bear and got too close. The guard was slightly injured by the disturbed bear and the bear was shot dead by a second guard.

Important stories. One about the changing nature of the travel industry and its relationship with captive wildlife. The other, tragically, highlighting the need for further urgent reform of practices involving the viewing of wildlife in its natural habitat.  

I was invited to go on national TV to talk about these issues today – more than happy. However, the broadcaster could not find anyone to speak from the other perspective – presumably someone who is in favour of the keeping of orca and other marine mammals in captivity and someone who is in favour of getting too ‘up, close and personal’ with animals in their natural habitat. Although that is not surprising, what is surprising is that instead of going ahead with the interview and having the opportunity to discuss and air these important issues with the presenters, the broadcaster cancelled.

It just seems to me that the notion that we must always have two sides of a debate, a man and a woman so there is gender balance, diversity represented – and that this takes precedence over the story itself, is madness. Would the national broadcaster turn down Sir David Attenborough if he was the only guest? I don’t think so!

We simply have to re-establish the principle that the news is news and it deserves to be reported and debated. That must be the top priority.

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