19 May 2000

Bad Example set on TV Pet Rescue

Pet Rescue, now in its 4th year was launched on national television in January 1997. With more than fifty people working on the show, it would have been nice if in that time and with such resources they had developed the content of the show into something a little less irresponsible.. But the producers of the series which goes out daily during childrens' peak time viewing appear to be more obsessed with ratings and viewer-numbers calling in. In a posting headed 'Bad Example set on Pet Rescue' this week, Jenny Benson of the uk.rec.pets.misc newsgroup said about a recent showing of the programme: "One of the presenters spoke to a woman carrying a tiny West Highland White terrier. The owner said that the puppy was 8 weeks old and the presenter made some remark about it obviously enjoying the sunny weather. It looked as though it was, in fact, an extremely hot and sunny day and the tiny puppy was probably not very comfortable at all being carried about in such heat and amongst all those people. There was no mention at all on the programme that a puppy of only 8 weeks of age should not be taken out amongst other dogs (for fear of pre-vaccination infection), that dogs could suffer excessively being out in great heat and bright sun for long periods or that such tiny puppies need long periods of sleep and should not be "over-faced" with too many new people and experiences all at once. For a programme which devotes a lot of time to showing the results of irresponsible pet ownership and endeavours to find suitable homes for many animals which have not always had the advantages of knowledgeable and caring owners, I thought this was not only setting a very bad example, but missing a good opportunity for putting across some useful information." The consensus response on the newsgroup seems to be that Pet Rescue is not alone in its failure to promote responsible pet ownership on TV. It is about time some of the many researchers on these programmes started asking the right questions of the right people.