15 Years of Animal Cruelty in the Jungle Camp
For 15 years, animals have been tormented for entertainment purposes on RTL's Jungle Camp. Animal welfare organizations are demanding an end to the practice.
This year, the "Jungle Camp" celebrates its 15th anniversary.
Those responsible for the show continue to exploit unwilling performers such as cockroaches, spiders, and reptiles. PETA is now calling on everyone to boycott the programme for as long as animals continue to be used, killed, and eaten. In addition, the animal rights organization is once again urging production company ITV Germany and the RTL Jungle Camp editorial team to make the format animal-friendly.
ITV and RTL should be ashamed of exploiting animals purely for the entertainment of viewers, and thereby accepting that sentient beings suffer and are killed. We call on those responsible to immediately stop using live animals or animals killed specifically for the show in the format.
Biologist Dr. Yvonne Würz, PETA's specialist advisor for animals in the entertainment industry
Format Sends a Dangerous Message
In recent years, PETA has repeatedly appealed to production company ITV Studios Germany and RTL to stop using animals in jungle trials for the show. According to the organization, the "Jungle Camp" has been portraying certain animal species as a disgust factor for over a decade, sending a completely misleading message. In doing so, viewers become desensitized and numbed in their attitude toward animals — compassion for the suffering and needs of animals falls by the wayside. Dr. Würz explains: "Animals may differ from us in some respects, but in the ways that matter most, we are the same — just like us, reptiles and other animal species can feel pain and want to live an unharmed life in freedom." PETA points out that in the show, animals are not only subjected to immense stress, but also to life-threatening situations, and are killed.
Consumption of Live Animals, Animal Products, and Body Parts
Over the past 14 seasons, the celebrities have consumed, among other things, live insects, cockroaches and maggots, as well as genitals and various bodily fluids from animals during various "challenges". Among other things, live animals such as snakes, lizards, rats, crayfish, spiders and scorpions were used for the format.
In addition, for example, the genitals of kangaroos, deer and crocodiles, as well as the eyes of fish or sheep, camel blood, bushpig semen, duck feet and the tongue of a goat were used. PETA also points out that exotic wild animals in particular are put in mortal fear by the stress on the TV set and may suffer lasting harm.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In our dossiers on recreational hunting gather fact-checks, analyses and background reports. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
