ITV have sparked a national debate with their airing of Saturday’s Lemonaid show fronted by Keith Lemon.
In this weekend’s show Keith ‘fixed it’ for a little girl called Casey to realise her dream of owning a puppy.
Unfortunately the eight minute clip (starts at around 12 minutes in) was presented in the form of a competition between Casey and two other children. I presume that this was not a genuine competition for two reasons.
The ‘losing’ children looked suspiciously contented, and the winning child on announcing that she was going to call the puppy ‘Keith’, was immediately presented with a diamante collar with Keith written on it!
Puppies as prizes
However, genuine or not, the programme gave the impression that it is OK to give a puppy away as a prize. An attitude which I thought had been thoroughly discarded some twenty years ago in the UK.
And which many people clearly find inappropriate today. The inevitable facebook page protesting about the item has already been set up.
Promoting brachycephalic dogs
Perhaps almost as concerning is the fact that the ITV’s choice of puppy for the prize on this show was a pug. As most of you probably know, pugs are brachycephalic dogs, which are subject to some awful health issues due to the extreme facial flattening bred into them.
Presumably the researchers for the programme either failed to discover this fact, or failed to recognise its importance in terms of the puppy’s welfare, and future veterinary costs for the family.
Either way, they will no doubt be in for a barrage of complaints on this score too.
What do you think?
Is it ever acceptable for a TV show to give a live puppy away as a prize, even if (as has been claimed) the winner was ‘pre-chosen’ and even if the programme’s team had vetted the puppy’s future home?
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