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UK Celebs Charged For Eating Rat

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-prefer-the-tail dept.

Jbabe writes "Two men have been charged after cooking a rat and serving it with rice as a meal for fellow contestants on a reality TV show. D'Acampo, 33, and Manning, 30, were confronted by RSPCA and were both charged with animal cruelty offenses and ordered to appear in court on February 3. If found guilty, the pair face up to three years in jail. Broadcasters of the program in Britain could also face charges. RSPCA NSW chief inspector David O'Shannessy said it was unacceptable for the rat to have been killed for a TV show. The concern is this was done purely for the cameras. The show's producers were ordered by the RSPCA to hand over footage showing how the rat, which was believed to be tame, was killed."

23 comments

  1. It's a rat... by bsharp8256 · · Score: -1

    Who cares? I'm sure if they had asked any major city they would have gotten all the rats they wanted to cook and eat.

    1. Re:It's a rat... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Truly, will the stupidity ever cease?

      Hell, they probably killed it a lot nicer than some of the critters I’ve shot and killed. Squirrels are tough, and a pellet rifle doesn’t do the job (I had a steel-tipped lead pellet go through the ribcage, directly through the backbone, and then be trapped in the skin without exiting – although if it hadn’t encountered so much bone I expect it would have made it through). The tip of a shovel finishes them off quite well, though. They also don’t taste all that much like chicken.

    2. Re:It's a rat... by jameskojiro · · Score: 1

      Kill squirrels by feeding them bubble gum, it blocks them up and they cannot poop it out nor can they puke it out. On the plus side bubble gum doesn't affect animals that eat squirrels like hawks, foxes, cats, etc.... Which is better than poisoning them as you don't poison the upstream predators.

      They are rodents, they will make more and believe me there is a reason they call it "breeding like rabbits"

      --
      Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    3. Re:It's a rat... by jameskojiro · · Score: 1

      Fruit flavored gum like cheap double bubble or any pink fruity gum works the best on squirrels. A big batch of that is cheaper than the commercially availible squirrel poison out there.

      --
      Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    4. Re:It's a rat... by dov_0 · · Score: 1

      I really don't see the difference to killing and eating a rat in front of the camera and buying meat from the market to eat in front of the camera. In both cases an animal died for food. It gets worse though. In Victoria (the state bordering NSW to the south) the bleeding heart animal wuvvers are trying to put through legislation to mandate walking a dog every day...

      I guess it's just one of the signs of a wealthy society. People don't have to spend all their time working at the basics of existence anymore, so they start getting worried about rubbish like this.

      --
      sudo mount --milk --sugar /cup/tea /mouth /etc/init.d/relax start
    5. Re:It's a rat... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And it never occurs to you that these measures would not be necessary if not for our overpopulation? I wouldn't mind feeding you something that makes you die, but we are theoretically both human, and that would make me a fugitive.

      Even if you hate rodents I can't imagine thinking that their deaths will make your life better. It is the system that empowers the rodents that needs to fall ;)

    6. Re:It's a rat... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kill squirrels by feeding them bubble gum, it blocks them up and they cannot poop it out nor can they puke it out.

      I've got a lot of different fundamental goals in life ("values"). Key goals for me are survival, pleasure, being ethical, etc. Often my various goals are somewhat mutually exclusive and I have to balance them against each other. For example, given the choice between survival and ethics, I'll probably lean pretty heavily toward survival - I even tend to lean pretty heavily toward pleasure over ethics.

      So, what is ethics? I suppose that some people base their ethics on some sort of religious mythology or other. Other people may assume (somewhat optimistically) that they have superior genes and that they need to out-compete other people's (inferior) contributions to the human gene pool. Personally, my definition of ethics is based on trying to avoid causing pain and suffering to others. Getting back on topic, dieing from and intestinal blockage sounds excruciatingly painful. So, personally, I would tend to prefer to avoid killing squirrels with bubble-gum (that is, I would balance my aversion to killing squirrels with bubble-gum against my other goals: survival, pleasure, etc.).

      Here's the puzzle: for people who do kill squirrels with bubble-gum, do they have a different definition of ethics than I do or are their other goals so compelling that they have to sacrifice their goal of not inflicting pain and suffering on others? I don't know. I realize that even developed countries (e.g. the USA) have substantial poverty. There may be a lot of people in such countries who find themselves in a situation where they have to subject squirrels to excruciatingly painful deaths just in order to survive themselves (e.g. these people would starve if they allowed the squirrels to eat out of their subsistence garden).

      I don't live other people's lives so it's not really my place to judge - but it does puzzle me when I hear about people subjecting squirrels to deaths that are overwhelmingly likely to be excruciatingly painful.

    7. Re:It's a rat... by tacarat · · Score: 1

      Soylent green is made from... squirrels?

      --
      "Common sense will be the death of us all"
    8. Re:It's a rat... by muncadunc · · Score: 1

      Kill squirrels by feeding them bubble gum, it blocks them up and they cannot poop it out nor can they puke it out.

      That's... awful. Squirrels are nice and killing them doesn't do any good.
      At least they ate the rat.

  2. Animals eat other animals.... by jameskojiro · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Humans are Animals, we eat other animals as well as vegetable matter. We are omnivores.

    Get over yourselves you pretentious jackasses who think you are holier than though who wear leather shoes and then have the gall to tell us not to eat Hamburgers.

    Oh and we kill Rats all of the time with Traps and sticky glue traps, ever see a rat on a sticky glue trap? It is horrible compared to how they killed this thing. The rat gets stuck to this pad of glue and cannot move, the more the move the more they get stuck. They eventually starve to death and in some cases get eaten by other rats as they squeal with pain.

    Plus what about the whole idea that eating rats is probably more carbon neutral than eating the equivalent amount of beef????

    Rodents are nothing more than mammals that fill a similar niche that most insects occupy anyways, bottom of the food chain. Nature will make more of them and they are hardy little critters. They survived the K-T extinction event didn't they?

    --
    Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    1. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree that this is kind of silly. Rats are killed all the time, for all sorts of reasons, and no one goes to jail for it.

    2. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by jameskojiro · · Score: 1

      Rats and Mice are the last animal I would ever care about going extinct or suffering. Because they are some of the animals that cause the most human suffering through the ages and will probably inherit the earth someday after we hopefully left for better worlds....

      --
      Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    3. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by sznupi · · Score: 1

      Not tame rats.

      Actually, they are bred in large numbers for the good of mankind (laboratory animals)

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    4. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by sznupi · · Score: 1

      I think it has more to do with it being killed just for show, apparently.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    5. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the issue was that they killed a pet ..
      not a rat.

    6. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by gandhi_2 · · Score: 1

      The real news here is that the RSPCA has the power to bring criminal proceedings against you. That they don't like it is their business, that you can still do it should be everyone's business.

      --
      THL phish sticks
    7. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      they are bred in even larger numbers to be fed live to snakes and lizards.

    8. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by The+Archon+V2.0 · · Score: 1

      they are bred in even larger numbers to be fed live to snakes and lizards.

      That's horrible! Obviously we must starve the snakes to prevent animal cruelty.

    9. Re:Animals eat other animals.... by Nadaka · · Score: 1

      Indeed.

      BTW, if the image of the white rat is the actual rat in question, it really does look like a feed stock rat as nearly all of them are white.

  3. A rat is a rat is a rat by Jbabe · · Score: 1

    "It was the best recipe I ever did," he said afterwards.
    "believed to be tame"
    "Millions of Britons tune in each year to watch the show, which features celebrity contestants having to undergo "bush tucker trials" involving snakes, spiders and other insects found in the "jungle".

    (So was the rat tame or wild? Does it make a difference? If the show is about being in the jungle I highly doubt it being tame.)

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with killing a 'wild' animal for food. In fact I thought that was the whole point: If you kill an animal, make sure it's to serve a purpose, such as providing a MEAL FOR YOU. Up to 3 years prison? I can just imagine it, they're surrounded in prison by tattooed, hardened murderers and rapists....
    "I killed a man"
    "I raped an old lady and stole her purse"
    "I stabbed a cop"
    "I ate a rat"

    BAN RAT POISON! BAN FLYSPRAY! SQUASHING ANTS IS MURDER!!

  4. It's a human by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 1

    In Victoria (the state bordering NSW to the south) the bleeding heart animal wuvvers are trying to put through legislation to mandate walking a dog every day.

    That's probably intended as cruelty to fat lazy humans. Which is both legally sanctioned and officially encouraged.

    Of course, if the dog is fat and lazy and acclimatized to the air-conditioned indoors, then it might die of a heart attack or heat exhaustion when dragged out in the blazing sun for walkies. The fact that taking it for that fatal walk was legally mandated won't save your ass from the malevolence of the do-gooders.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  5. At least the Rat had a good life by Angelyne · · Score: 1

    What gets me is where is the RSPCA when there are million upon million of instances of animal cruelty going on right now every minute of the day. I'm talking about the practice of large-scale industrial style "farming". Have you seen the movie Food inc? The condition of the chickens in so-called chicken houses is so horrendous they wouldn't even show it to you on camera. One brave soul agreed (and lost her contract with Perdue). The chickens are packed with no room to move and live and die in their own waste. They are bred to have huge breasts and are so top heavy they can't walk properly and topple over. They die by the dozen and their corpses are picked up like so much detritus every day. I have nothing against eating meat, by any means. But I do believe we should not treat animals under our care like they are inanimate lumps of flesh incapable of feeling pain or terror. At least the rat had a good life before he ended in the pot. That can't be said for the animals that make it to our plate.

    1. Re:At least the Rat had a good life by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As long as it keeps me from starving or having to deal with chicken shit, Perdue has my approval.