Chris Packham sends letter to 'I'm A Celeb' every year over 'ongoing stereotyping' of animals

Chris Packham contacts I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! "every year" about their treatment of the animals featured on the show, he has divulged.

The ITV programme is renowned for its Bushtucker Trials that see the contestants covered in critters or eating them instead as part of the infamous eating tasks.

In the past, campmates have dined on delicacies such as fish eyes and kangaroo testicles.

But the Springwatch host has accused the show of "stereotyping" the animals which he believes are being used for "entertainment".

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He told Metro: "The time I spend making TV 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 counter productive 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 TV programme?"

Packham, 58, said he planned to write bosses another letter, proposing that he could work with them for a solution that would render the programme "no less entertaining".

The presenter was booed at a TV awards ceremony last month after he criticised the show for their treatment of animals.

As a he collected the award on behalf of Blue Planet Live, his speech urging the programme to stop the "abuse" was met with boos from some sections of the audience, although he did receive loud applause from others.

Read more: Packham taunted with dead birds

Meanwhile, Ant and Dec will be back to present I'm A Celebrity this year following on from Ant's absence last year when he was temporarily replaced by Holly Willoughby.