Chef Gino D’Acampo and actor Stuart Manning, contestants from the British version of I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! currently face charges of animal cruelty after cooking and eating a rat on the show during a period of exile. The animal welfare organization RSPCA in New South Wales (the show is filmed in Australia) apparently sends staff whenever animals are used or filmed for live performances, like when bugs, spiders, and snakes are used in the show’s Bushtucker Challenges. Since, apparently, the show’s production staff could never have predicted that humans in exile would be hungry, see a delicious-looking animal they want to eat, and act on that instinct, no RSPCA officer was present. (Sadly, the R in RSPCA stands for Royal instead of Rat.) According to the organization’s code of practice, the killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable. “The concern is this was done purely for the cameras,” a rep said. Thank you to an animal rights organization for encapsulating the universe’s concern for anything that occurs in the entire reality TV genre.
Whatever. This isn’t fair. The story didn’t even tell us what Chef Gino had ended up making for the Quickfire Challenge and who the guest judge was (probably Anton Ego). Shoddy reporting.
Image credit: D’Acampo: Camera Press/Retna ltd.; Manning: Camera Press/Retna ltd
Do you not think eating bugs alive is just as cruel??
They’re animals too you know…
But i’m sitting on the fence on this one i think.
They were obviously hungry, who would eat a rat unless they were hungry?
It wasn’t for entertainment it was for protein.
And it’s a rat, it’s not like they killed a Kangaroo or an Emu or something.
INSPIRED DEVVO