ITV fined over 'I'm a celebrity' rat killing
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Independent Minds
ITV was fined for animal cruelty after contestants on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! killed and ate a rat, the Australian RSPCA said today.
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ITV was fined for animal cruelty after contestants on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! killed and ate a rat, the Australian RSPCA said today.
Celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo and Hollyoaks actor Stuart Manning killed the animal with a knife when they were left without meat during the reality series.
Chief Inspector David Oshannessy, from the RSPCA, said ITV was fined 3,000 Australian dollars (£1,903) and will pay 2,576 dollars (£1,634) in costs.
He said: "It's a reasonable result. It reflects the fact that all animals are protected by the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
"The animal was killed for a TV show, that's not appropriate. The raw footage indicates that, from the first attempt, it took about 90 seconds before it actually died.
"The legislation says that an animal can be killed for human consumption provided it does not cause unnecessary suffering. Had it been killed and it was over and done with, we might not be having this conversation."
ITV said it would make sure that nothing similar happened in future series, and would take advice from the RSPCA on the necessary training involved.
A spokesman said: "ITV has apologised for the mistake which led to this incident.
"The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offence, criminal or otherwise in New South Wales, and accepts that further inquiries should have been made.
"This was an oversight and we have since thoroughly reviewed our procedures and are putting in place a comprehensive training programme to ensure that this does not happen in future series."
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Comments
Doing it to make money is unforgiveable.
We look for the dismissal of all ITV staff involved in this outrage, from the top down.
I hope that Chef Gino D'Acampo and Hollyoaks actor Stuart Manning have ended their careers with their atrocious act.
http://www.greenexplorer.ovi.com/getins
Anyone who has a go at this guy but is happy to eat animals they don't kill themselves is a hypocrite, IMO.
I agree entirely; eat what you kill. It is the law in some countries.
A quick story. An American friend of mine was given a gun by his father, with the strict instruction that he had to eat what he shot. He shot a skunk by mistake, and never killed again.
Usually it works by dehydrating the rat, so it wanders in search of a drink, hopefully far away from the human area, to slowly die in agony as its internal organs dissolve. It can take many hours.
I think this is deliberately draconian, fueled by prejudice against these animals. they are in fact highly intelligent, sociable and with very poor pain thresholds.
They are often blamed for bubonic plague. In fact, it was black rats (ship rats) who spread the plague. Current wild rats in the uk are brown (norwegian) rats, who are physically incapable of acarrying plague, and cannot be infested with black rat fleas. Brown rats arrived and outcompeted black rats, and it was only this that brought an end to the terrifying cycles of plague that had hit the UK for hundreds of years. Without brown rats, black rats would return and bubonic plague would return with them. This liberation from plague allowed our nation to advance into the enlightenment and our modern scientific world.
Love the british wild rat!! Most of us would never have been born, and life would be rather medieval, without them.
I read today that the number of UK military personnel killed in Afghanistan equalled the total number killed during the Falklands War.
Are you aware how Jews kill animals?
Do you know of the manner in which Australians transport live sheep for slaughter in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere?
Nice to know Australians have nothing better to think about.
livelihoods too. Rodents are a major cause of food loss as they foul grain stores. Then what about disease spreading insects like flies and cockroaches, not to mention mosquitos?
Did the RSPCA miss all of that? Maybe I'm naive in assuming that insects are animals? Or are they just not cute enough to bother about?
Brown rats carry many diseases (tho not as many as avians do), still, it includes such lovelies as Salmonella, Trichinosis, Rat Bite Fever, Hantavirus and Weils Disease - they're routinely killed by rentakill and other exterminators as pests.
But won't someone think of the arachnids!
And how long does it take a rat to die, when it's been poisoned to protect the crops eaten by sanctimonious vegetarians and vegans?