Chris Packham has written another open letter to I’m A Celeb hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly in a bid to stop animal cruelty on the show – which starts on Sunday night
In another bid to stop the Bushtucker Trials, Chris has now compared eating a live baby monkey to eating a live spider – pointing out that neither life is more valuable than the other
He posted the letter to Twitter in a final attempt to call out bosses and the Geordie presenters
‘Good morning @antanddec @I @itvnews,’ he begins ‘I hope you are well. On behalf of many animal lovers I’ve written you (another) letter
‘For our world to survive this needs to be the age of change so could you please have a read , and a think and then get back to me ? Thanks
Please RT’ The news follows after producers reportedly banned the use of live insects on the programme
In the letter Chris pleads with the show to stop the use of animals for entertainment
‘I’d like to call upon your consciences to reconsider the validity of your bushtucker trials, to cease these and to end all involvement of animals in your forthcoming series,’ he began
‘Since around the time you were both born we have lost between 40 and 50% of all worlds wildlife
‘We are currently losing species of animals, plants and fungi at a rate 1,000 to 10,000 times faster that what is measured as natural
’ He continued: ‘You would not ask your contestants to eat a live baby monkey, but in ecological terms a monkey is no more valuable, no more important that a grub or a spider or cricket
’ You can read the full letter below. The show came under fire in 2017 when Vanessa White and Jennie McAlpine had to keep animals in their mouths while humming for a Bushtucker trial
An I spokesman said at the time: ‘As a production, I’m a Celebrity complies with all regional and national laws concerning the use of insects animals and reptiles
’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video It’s not the first time Springwatch presenter has aired his views about the animal cruelty on show
Earlier in October, Chris explained that wanted to talk to show bosses about how they include animals in the future, accusing them of ‘stereotyping’ snakes and cockroaches
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘The time I spend making programmes I’m trying to engender an affinity for life
It’s not just about the cute and the cuddly, it’s about everything because everything is necessary
So it’s about snakes it’s about spiders, it’s about cockroaches. ‘What I object to on the programme is the ongoing stereotyping of these animals as being things which are dirty, disgusting, poisonous dangerous and so on and so forth
And that’s counterproductive to everything that I do. ‘We don’t have wild animals in the circus any more, we don’t like animals being used for that sort of entertainment any more
So why would we countenance it on a programme? ‘I plan to write them another letter saying, “can I come and talk to you, can we come up with a solution whereby your programme is no less entertaining and popular and you don’t stereotype and abuse animals?”
’ He also publicly blasted the I reality show for ‘abusing animals’ at the Choice Awards in September
I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! returns to I in November.