The Discovery Channel and the creators of the "Eaten Alive" program are facing online ridicule after the special failed to show a man be swallowed by a snake.
Discovery spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg said it was Rosolie's "absolute intention to be eaten alive. Ultimately, after the snake constricted Paul for over an hour and went for his head, the experiment had to be called when it became clear that Paul would be very seriously injured if he continued on. The safety of Paul, as well as the anaconda, was always our number one priority."
The show's producers had earlier been criticized by animal lovers including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals for causing undue stress to the wild snake. However, the makers of the program revealed the snake featured in the show wasn't actually from the wild at all.
"We didn't want to stress out a snake and then release her to the wild," Rosolie said. "We wanted to be able to check her out, make sure she was okay. We kept in touch with her keeper for weeks afterwards to make sure she was alive and back to normal. We wanted to keep the suspense but really, it wasn't that big of a deal for the snake. But people have been drawing such crazy conclusions, we let them wonder."
The anticlimactic end to the special led to a flurry of criticism on Twitter.Calling it #EatenAlive is like having a show on the Food Network about cooking a turkey and all they do after 2 hours is preheat the oven." Reagan King (@ReaganKingIsles) December 8, 2014
@PaulRosolie didn't need an anaconda. He's getting #EatenAlive quite well by the Twitter universe." Bernie Delinski (@TD_BDelinski) December 8, 2014
Next on Discovery... The search for the Easter Bunny. Where I search for 2 hours... give up and eat a whole pizza. #EatenAlive" Jason (@DrSlappyShorts) December 9, 2014
Hey @discovery, can I have my own show? #EatenAlive pic.twitter.com/OLEZykn1sx" BarstoolTrent (@BarstoolTrent) December 8, 2014
