“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be
judged by the way its animals are treated.”
Gandhi’s words imply, then, that Britain
For many people, the start of ITV’s stalwart reality show I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here is a
depressing time, with animal rights champions such as Chris Packham of BBC’s Autumnwatch and charities such as RSPCA
repeatedly criticising the show. OFCOM received massive numbers of complaints
in 2009 when camp mates caught and killed a supposedly wild rat - so why can’t
they treat all of the animals with the same respect?
I’d like to clear two things up. Firstly, I consider myself
to be an Animal Activist. I’m reclaiming that word as of now, and re-defining
it to mean “a person whose chief concern is the welfare of ALL animals,
domestic and otherwise, in ANY situation.”
Secondly, without naming names, not all charities are as morally upstanding as they seem. In my
opinion, any charity that uses scare-mongering to brainwash children, chases down high-profile names such as Game
Freak or Ben and Jerry’s ice cream with
ludicrous, headline-grabbing stunts and ignores the real plight of animals,
even to the point of neglecting or even culling animals in their own care, is
NOT for animals. I am sure that there are people affiliated with these companies that feel the
way that I and many others do about animal welfare, but unfortunately they
appear not to be in charge.
So tell me this: if it’s not acceptable to catch and kill a
live animal on TV, why is it acceptable to force a young woman into a room with
a live ostrich, especially when you consider that ostriches are classed as a
‘dangerous animal’ here in the UK
In other trials, contestants thrust their hands into covered boxes to retrieve small star tokens that guarantee them
and their camp mates luxury food items, but are also filled with various
lizards, snakes, spiders, scorpions and certain other animals that would make
the average viewer cringe. I’m told that these animals are very well taken care
of during the time that they are not in the boxes. Emphasis on the last part
of my sentence there. So because the handlers take care of them during the
many hours they are not in the box, it's OK to have someone grab at them? You cannot sit a lizard down and explain it's all for entertainment purposes and they won't be hurt - the majority of them will be terrified when a groping hand comes into their enclosure suddenly. Is it really acceptable to stress them out for twenty minutes if we
treat them with respect for the rest of the time?
I know people don’t really care as much about non-domestic
animals, and it’s not everyone’s fault. We’ve been conditioned to think that
puppies are adorable and spiders should be killed on sight. But is that really
the way a person or in this case a TV programme that claims to have ‘all
animals’ in mind should behave? You can’t claim to be kind to all creatures if
you overlook the vast majority of them. It’s like that famous saying that
begins with “I’m not racist, but...”*
There are plenty of other tasks that the camp can do that
don’t involve animal cruelty - they’re in Australia
They say every dog has its day, and I think that I’m a Celeb’s day has definitely long
gone. I really hope that next year, ITV will come up with a new format...but I don't hold out much hope.
*I would
like to explain - I am likening the idiotic
attitude of believing that you can deem yourself ‘100% not racist’ and then
follow that up with a racist comment to claiming to care for all animals when
in fact you only care for one or two. If you think I am implying anything else
by that statement, think again RIGHT NOW.
^ "Chris Packham Attacks 'I'm a Celebrity's' "disrespect" of Animals", The Mirror Online, 22 Nov 2012. Retrieved 25 Nov 2012
