Celebrity Winner Faces Rat Killing Charge
Winner of ITV reality show I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, Gino D’Acampo, and fellow contestant Stuart Manning face animal cruelty charges in Australia after allegedly cooking and eating a rat on the programme.
The pair were part of a group in exile for part of the series, which meant reduced rations of rice and beans.
The lack of meat forced the contestants to apparently capture, kill and eat a rat in a risotto.
D’Acampo, a 33-year-old chef, said that he saw one of the rats running around, got a knife, got its throat and picked it up.
The exiled group included 30 year old Manning, who ate the rat and enjoyed the meal.
Chief Inspector David O’Shannessy 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 if animals are used in TV productions they’re to be used in accordance to a cde of practice which states no animal could be killed or harmed.
O’Shannessy went on to say the circumstances may be completely different if someone was in outback Australia and that was going to be their last meal but this was for the production of a TV show.
He stated that the rules would not relate to insects and grubs which have been eaten by contestants in the past.
According to O’Shannessy, crocodiles and other animals could be consumed, but it depended very much on the method they are killed and processed for human consumption.
Carla Lane, a renowned animal rights campaigner, said it was a stupid programme and it was obvious that these people weren’t suffering at all.
She went on to say that it wasn’t acceptable, especially for people like that who have never been hungry in their lives and who’ve chosen to go on a programme to make easy money.
A spokesman for the New South Wales police said that two men aged 30 and 33 were issued field court attendance notices and are due to attend court at Murwillumbah on Feburary 3rd next year.