Abuse of an animal--any animal--is not talent. It is brute ignorance.
The debut of this season of America's Got Talent tonight seems to have made animal abuse into a ticket to the next round. A carny-faux shaman type character entered, carrying a wooden box marked "dangerous" and "venomous", etc. The unmistakable rattle of a frightened Eastern Diamondback can be heard insider the box. Incidentally, the box was nowhere nearly large enough for the rattler. Okay, so this guy's "talent" is to hype his own courage, remove the rattler from the box with a herper hook, get it scared enough to bunch up and strike out several times, and then have the rattler pop a balloon he's holding near his head. There was no respect for the snake, no respect for the awesome power of the Eastern Diamondback. And to make it worse, the "judges" all loved the "act". NBC, that non-human lifeforms are not toys, and abuse is not talent. Let's get the corporate machine to show just a slight glimmer of humanity..
