Will Rhumble the Rescued Bullfrog Convince Ant and Dec to Quit ‘I’m a Celebrity’?
Will Rhumble the Rescued Bullfrog Convince Ant and Dec to Quit ‘I’m a Celebrity’?
London – During the new season of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here!, PETA has renamed a rescued African bullfrog Rhumble – after Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly’s hit single “Let’s Get Ready to Rhumble” – in an appeal to the broadcasting duo to step away from the problematic programme, which has left tens of thousands of viewers hopping mad for causing animals misery for fleeting entertainment.
In a letter (available here) sent to Ant and Dec, PETA points out that frogs like Rhumble – along with crocodiles, spiders, ostriches, and countless other animals – have been tormented and even killed for shameful stunts on I’m a Celebrity over the past two decades.
Images are available here. Credit: Hopefield Animal Sanctuary
“By leaving the jungle for good, you’ll be standing up for sentient individuals and challenging show producers to create fresh tasks instead of tired tropes,” writes PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. “And you’d be in good company – nearly 80,000 supporters have signed PETA’s petition urging ITV to stop abusing animals on the show, and Ofcom reports tens of thousands of viewer complaints about the show’s abuse of animals.”
PETA notes that male African bullfrogs – like Rhumble, who now lives at Hopefield Animal Sanctuary – are devoted dads who’ve been documented digging burrows in dry ponds to help their tadpoles reach water. Cruel stunts on I’m a Celebrity have included confining frogs and other animals to inescapable chambers with screaming, flailing humans; serving up animals’ genitals, organs, and other body parts for contestants to eat; and trapping and shaking spiders inside small jars before contestants attempt to eat them alive. Last year, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk offered to leave her rump to the show’s producers in her will, calling I’m a Celebrity “bottom-of-the-barrel TV”. And earlier this year, PETA’s “frogs” went viral after crashing ITV’s annual meeting to protest against the network’s failure to take a stand against animal abuse.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow it on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]
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