‘I’m a Celebrity’ star charged over rat-eating claims
The winner of British reality TV show “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” and a fellow contestant are facing criminal charges in Australia for animal cruelty after cooking and eating a rat on the TV programme.
Winner Gino D’Acampo, a TV chef, and Stuart Manning were members of a group forced to live on meagre rations of rice and beans during the show, based in the Australian jungle.
Speaking in the show’s video diary room, D’Acampo claimed to have killed a rat before cooking it and eating it with other contestants.
“I saw one of these rats running around. I got a knife, I got its throat, I picked it up,” he said.
Chief Inspector David Oshannessy, from the RSPCA in New South Wales, said it was not acceptable that an animal had been killed as part of a performance.
He said: “The allegation is that an animal was cruelly treated on the set. It was a rat that was killed. There is a code of conduct in New South Wales that dictates how animals can be used. The killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable.”
A spokesman for New South Wales Police said: “Police from Murwillumbah yesterday issued field court attendance notices to two men aged 30 and 33 for the offence of animal cruelty. They are due to attend court at Murwillumbah local court on February 3, 2010.”TV
