Thousands of people have reportedly backed PETA's petition to have Ant and Dec leave I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
The popular ITV reality contest, and the bushtucker trials that its famous contestants have to take on, have been labelled 'tired, tacky and cruel' by the animal rights charity.
PETA says that 50,000 people have now signed its petition to stop animals being involved in the trials.
Celebs including Boy George, Sue Cleaver and Matt Hancock have all entered the Australian bush this week, battling it out to be crowned King or Queen of the Jungle.
The bushtucker trials they typically face involve being locked in confined spaces with thousands of bugs, crawling through rat and snake-infested tunnels, and even eating animal parts, like kangaroo testicles.
Ant and Dec. Credit: ITV
PETA has now hit out at Ant and Dec for endorsing 'animal abuse' in an open letter to the Geordie presenter duo.
They wrote: "And and Dec. The longer you associate yourselves with I’m A Celebrity, the more you send the message to viewers that you think animal abuse is not only acceptable but also entertaining…
"So please, hang up your hats and get yourselves out of there - for animals’ sake."
On the petition page, they added: "During these challenges, celebrity participants perform ghastly acts such as sticking their hands or heads into tanks filled with insects, spiders, mice, rats, or fish; crawling into small spaces on top of masses of rats or insects; and even eating animals and their body parts.
"Killing animals off camera before contestants are pressured into eating them – or using them in tired, tacky, cruel stunts – must end."
PETA continued that animals are 'not there by choice' and 'deserve better than to be used in irresponsible and inhumane stunts'.
A spokesperson for I'm A Celebrity said: "We are always fully transparent about our protocols and we have a very strict environmental plan in place on the show. As a production, we comply with all regional and national laws concerning the use of insects, animals and reptiles.
"Welfare and safety is always the primary priority on any of our programmes, and at any Bushtucker trial that features animals, we have qualified and experienced animal handlers on site at all times. We inform the RSPCA NSW of all of our activities on the show and they have an open invitation to attend the site at any time.
"We cannot stress enough that we have rigorous protocols in place to ensure that animals are handled safely at all times, before, during and after any filming has taken place, in compliance with all regional and national laws."
Featured image: ITV
Art & Culture
Louis Theroux completes full line-up for Leeds International Festival of Ideas 2026
Leeds International Festival of Ideas today reveals the full line-up for its sixth edition.
Louis Theroux, Elizabeth Day, Chris Packham CBE, Roman Kemp, Vicky Pattison, James O’Brien, Dame Evelyn Glennie and Megan McKenna are among the amazing names heading to Leeds Playhouse in October for a five-day, ten-event programme.
Louis Theroux, one of the most distinctive broadcasters of our time, will open the festival on Tuesday 6 October with an intimate fireside chat at Leeds Playhouse’s Quarry stage.
The chat will cover four decades of social commentary, from far-right militias to Scientologists, porn stars to convicted criminals, the rich, the broken, and the misunderstood in one night, in Leeds,
Images: Supplied
Tim Minchin will then close proceedings on Saturday 10 October with a career-spanning conversation taking in Matilda the Musical, three decades of songwriting, and Minchin’s refreshingly clear-eyed views on living a creative life.
Across the week, hosts Samira Ahmed, Chris Packham, Miranda Sawyer, Joe Tidy, Laura Hamilton, Amy Irons, Harriet Rose, Jamil Qureshi, Dr Hannah French and Larry Budd will lead a programme of panel discussions tackling the questions defining the moment: the future of the planet, belonging in modern Britain, the legacy of the 90s, the future of parenthood, suicide and masculinity, social media, failure, and what it means to live a creative life.
Martin Dickson, Festival Director, said: "Getting Louis Theroux to Leeds is a real moment for this festival and this city. He's one of the defining broadcasters of his generation, and the kind of name LIFI has been building towards for four years.
"But this is a programme with serious depth beyond the headline — Tim Minchin, Elizabeth Day, Chris Packham, Samira Ahmed, Miranda Sawyer, five days of conversation you genuinely cannot get anywhere else in the country. LIFI has always been about bringing the brightest minds to Leeds and giving the city a stage that punches above its weight. LIFI26 does exactly that."
Tickets go on sale to priority subscribers on Thursday 4 June, with general sale opening next Wednesday 10 June. Sign up to be a priority subscriber here.
The Yorkshire designer who’s put together the official FIFA World Cup scarf collection
Danny Jones
A Yorkshire-born and bred artist and his creative team have earned the huge honour of creating the official FIFA scarf collection for this year's World Cup.
Nothing short of massive for anyone from our part of the world.
The local legend in question is Tom Pitts, who was born in Sheffield and is now based just beyond Leeds, leading the campaign right from the helm.
Hand Drawn Pixels is a graphic design and digital studio based in Otley, and while you'll see plenty of folks wearing football shirts and even the odd scarf on the town's famous pub crawl, these lot are venturing on an entirely different kind of run this summer.
In fact, the work has very much already started, with Tom and co. collaborating directly with FIFA and US manufacturers, Global Scarves, to create the World Cup collection.
With this year's tournament obviously taking place across America, Mexico and Canada, they've joined up with a big LLC, but they describe themselves as "a true English custom scarf company with American parents."
In their words, "We knit scarves for clients all over the world", with a presence both near Leeds and over in Seattle, Washington.
The fixtures themselves kick off next month (England's first game coming against Croatia on 17 June), and so Hand Drawn Pixels have been hard at work meeting the briefs for each of the nations taking part.
Here's a quick breakdown of how the opportunity came about, their vision for the project, and how everything starts for them as a whole process.
You can see more of their work HERE, but as the brand name would suggest, it's pretty simple to begin with: nothing more than a pencil.
It's worth noting that the 2026 World Cup also featured the largest number of teams in the competition's history: 48 qualified national squads, to be exact. So, technically, they've had even more designing to do than they theoretically would have in any of the previous years, too.
Tom confessed that winning this bid is obviously a big deal on its own and that seeing his creations being worn in person by supporters at the stadiums will be a "surreal" experience.
Speaking exclusively with The Hoot, he said: "It’s been an amazing creative challenge for us to truly reflect the individuality and diversity of the nations competing in this prestigious tournament on such an iconic product as the football scarf."
He went on to add that "the whole project has been a huge learning experience, gaining deeper cultural insight into every nation involved."
We can't wait to cast eyes upon a sea of colour and finely crafted fabric in unique but somehow universally familiar patterns, all designed right here in 'God's Own Country'.
Daisy Jackson -
8th November 2022 
