British television station fined for reality rat death

British commercial broadcaster ITV was fined by an Australian court after pleading guilty to animal cruelty over the televised death of a rat, news reports said Monday.

Two contestants in the reality television show I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here! killed and cooked a rat during filming in Australia last year, the Herald Sun reported.

The Sydney court heard a complaint by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) that the rodent took 90 seconds to die after being stabbed with a knife, DPA reported.

Chef Gino D'Acampo and actor Stuart Manning were originally charged with the offence, but the charge was switched to ITV after it admitted responsibility.

ITV was fined 3,000 Australian dollars (2,580 US dollars) and ordered to pay court costs of 2,500 Australian dollars.

"The production was unaware that killing a rat could be an offense, criminal or otherwise, in New South Wales and accepts that further inquiries should have been made," an ITV spokesman was quoted as saying.

When it levelled the initial complaint, RSPCA spokesman David O'Shannesy said the objection was that the rat had been killed for entertainment value.

"The killing of a rat for a performance is not acceptable," he said at the time. "The concern is, this was done purely for the cameras."