The ethics of using live animals, however small or easily overlooked, in programmes like ITV’s I’m a Celebrity is worth examining with care. The idea that living creatures can be used as props for entertainment sits uneasily once it’s named aloud, because it challenges the assumption that their lives are too insignificant to matter. When insects, worms, fish, or reptiles are tipped into tanks, poured over contestants, or handled purely for shock value, the show quietly reinforces the belief that the distress of smaller, weaker beings is inconsequential.

Contestants volunteer for these trials, but the animals don’t. They’re exposed to loud environments, constant handling, rapid movement, and extreme stress, and in some cases they’re killed outright. Even if the creatures aren’t endangered, even if the individual harm seems small, the issue isn’t simply about scale. It’s about the habits we form as a society. Normalising the idea that a life, any life, can be treated roughly for entertainment nudges us towards a thinner, less generous form of compassion.

The question becomes whether the spectacle genuinely requires the suffering of living beings, and whether the temporary thrill for viewers is a fair trade for the stress and harm inflicted. An entertainment format can be bold, messy, and playful without using animals as disposable objects. Thinking this through doesn’t diminish the fun; it simply asks the industry, and all of us, to imagine forms of entertainment that don’t rely on causing distress to creatures that can’t consent and can’t escape.