I agree, also the show decided to put the rat in as a prank, how were Gino and Stuart supposed to know this...??

Who is at fault....The show is!  

Although, eating a rat under any circumstances is a bit rank.  

I've just heard that on the radio .... couldn't believe it.

To be honest I don't really like the challenges that uses live creatures,I much prefer the chest challenges and that last water slide challenge! I did wonder when someone would be questioned on the use of the live creatures! however, they must have seen them hunting for the rat so they could have been stopped at any point! Does this mean that some of the other celebs will also be charged because they ate the rat?

jeesus wept,  are we all to be  arrested for swatting flies and hoovering up spiders?

It looks to me like an Australian law about the use of animals in broadcasting/entertainment rather than a rat being killed one way rather than another for food.

I absolutely hate rats I have nightmares about them but having said that I was shocked how the rat was killed I just thought .. this cant be right .. IMO, I would have thought when he was talking about it the crew etc would have stopped him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8397691.stm

I too don't like them using live animals even insects etc.The gunky ,fun trials etc are so much better.

I always suspected that the rats were tame in that show.Wild rats would bolt from humans not wander around happily among them.
Pet rats make lovely pets.

Same here Katty...

i like rats, i just get freaked out by their tale. if i could have their tail chopped off id happily have a rat.

good.

though the programme and the animal breeders are more at fault tbh. those rats are not wild rats. they are domesticated which is why they dont run away when being picked up....not knowing it was going to have it's throat slit and eat.

if it was a domesticated cat or dog people would expect them to face charges.........but cos it's a rat people seem fine with it.

besides...what chef doesn;t know that beans are full of protein???

That's called a hamster!

noooooooooooo hamsters are EBIL!!!

they bite, sleep all bloody day and smell

rats are much nicer plus you can get tailess rats...but in the rat fancy they are deemed 'special needs' rats so not purposely bred for. they take alot more care to own.

I'd quite like rats,we are on our fifth Syrian hamster,none bit,well once they are hand tamed after a few weeks.Though two house rabbits and a budgie and the hamster seem plenty at the moment.

awww a special needs rat he would fit in perfect in this house where everything and everyone is a bit skewiff. if ever you hear of one ill have him

i had a rat with half a tail once, looked like it had been ripped off...probbaly by someone picking her up by the tip of her tail...the skin can come off . she HATED humans...was the grumpiest rat i ever had lol. was pregnant too and only 6 weeks old! she never grew any bigger than that..and had 11 babies (an average number) and they all grew to be twice the size of her at least!

I don't like rats - at all, the wild ones that you see running about (if you are unlucky), but I still don't like the idea of them being killed and eaten, especially if they were tamed or pet rats, ugh.  As many of you have said, I don't like the trials where they have to eat live insects etc, it turns my stomach and also seems cruel to the insects concerned.  I much prefer the gunky type trials and just seeing how the different celebs interact with each other.

Also (my apologies to rat lovers here), I'm surprised that there would be enough meat on a rat to feed more than one person.

I think Gino is a bit sexy....rat breath and all...

It is questionable, the way they treat animals in that series.  Whilst we all swat bugs that are a nuisance, that's a bit different to deliberately catching hundreds of creatures and mistreating them.  On that last task with Jimmy in the tank filled with water, they released a load of fish into the water.  When the water was drained out, I assume the fish were just left to die.  My son saw that and reckoned it was evil.

I agree, they should have filled the tank up, let the creatures survive and let Jimmy White drown! Now that would have been entertaining!

Oh, Trollop!

I stopped watching a couple of years ago because of the cruelty to the beasts but I've seen clips on This Morning of this year's one so knew about the rat thing.  I didn't know full story so thought, well at least the animal is getting eaten and not just mistreated for entertainment's sake.  But I didn't know they were someone's pet.  That's awful and very sad

you haven't met my Tiffin

not really someone's pet (as in owned and loved) but domesticated..tamed and purposely bred for the show....

much like the dalmations in the disney films....i remember the uproar about that...yet they still made a sequel

O-M-G!! They ate Bambi Rat??

The advert at the top is for pest control

One of the reasons we don't watch it.

Same here, I have to leave the room as it disgusts me that creatures are used for entertainment, it doesn't entertain me, I prefer the other tasks.

It's always surprised me the Australians allow a a tv crew and all their entourage to go into a natural habitat and allow them to kill so many insects or eat live ones, If a complaint has been made I hope action is taken to stop it in the future. Let the Producers come up with other tasks instead.

Did anyone else notice that when they dropped all the spiders in the compartment with Kims head, that it was the spiders that were actually trying to get out?

Ta muchly for the input guys so we all agree that we have now got ratgate!Well let's hope that the producers of the show think a bit more carefully about the way they use creatures in the show!