Are wildlife photographers unethical?

It was all over the news a few days ago. The BBC has cheated on us by including images that were shot in a Dutch zoo in their highly acclaimed ‘Frozen Planet’ series. Are wildlife photographers/film makers unethical people? First of all, I don’t think there is anything unethical about filming in a zoo, especially if trying to film something in the wild would hurt the animal. But I do think it’s unethical not to tell the audience you did that. It doesn’t have to be in the narration, but could be in the credits. If we think it’s OK not to tell the audience, then photography shot in captive conditions will become more valuable than photography shot in the wild, because you can usually get better shots if you control all the variables. And that may lead to really unethical situations, like what happens in Montana regularly.

Otter (picture shot in the Rotterdam zoo)