Sir David Attenborough blasts Bear Grylls for killing animals on TV after The Island contestants slaughtered a crocodile
The 91-year-old said: 'Bear Grylls will have to answer for himself'
SIR David Attenborough has lashed out at Bear Grylls for killing animals for the sake of entertainment.
The adventurer’s Channel 4’s The Island with Bear Grylls has seen contestants slaughter caiman crocodiles, pigs and turkeys during recent series.
And now TV legend Sir David, 91, has criticised Bear for sacrificing animals just to make good television viewing.
The BBC legend said: “We’ve never killed an animal.
“Bear Grylls will have to answer for himself.
“But I wouldn’t willingly kill an animal just to get a shot.”
It comes after Bear came under fire by animal charity PETA after Olympian Iwan Thomas and former Corrie actor Ryan Thomas were seen wrestling a croc before killing it with a knife.
The scenes, which aired last year during the celebrity special, sparked complaints to media watchdog Ofcom and also led the director of PETA UK to condemn the “miserable celebrities and producers” for allowing the events to occur.
Meanwhile, Sir David revealed he is making a move from the Beeb to online streaming outlets - following in the footsteps of Jeremy Clarkson.
He has signed a mega-deal to host a show on conservation with Netflix.
He said: “Netflix want me to do something on conservation and have asked me to do it, and I’ve said I would.
“There’s certain things that the BBC can do and can’t do, and I can see some reasons why to do a programme on Netflix rather than the BBC.
“But while the BBC ask me to do things that what I will do.”
Sir David, who will host Attenborough and the Sea Dragon on BBC1 this Sunday at 8pm, has also been tapped up by Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Michael Gove to give him advice on plastics and saving the environment.
He added: ”We had a half an hour conversation at a thing called the Darwin Initiative... it’s 25 years old I think and Gove was there and he invited me and I spoke and before the meeting we had half an hour together where we talked about these things.”