Lawsuit Over 'mistreated' Animals in French Reality Show

The company that supplied the animals for Celebrity Farm, France's most popular reality TV show, is suing the producers because too many died.

Arts France, which provided chickens, goats, ducks and even a small pony for the programme, said yesterday it had not been allowed too look after the birds and animals properly and was taking legal action.

"There was a total lack of respect for the animals," said Alain Jaillard, the company's managing director. "We asked for special equipment to transport them; it was refused. We warned of problems months ago; nothing was done."

According to Le Parisien newspaper, 16 hens and a duck died on a single day in April when they were released into a studio coated with a non-slip floor surface of sand and glue that proved to be highly toxic for birds.

In May the show's mascot, a crested grey cockerel, was crushed when a production assistant accidentally heaved a bale of hay on to it. Later another hen died when it strayed too close to a high-powered studio lamp, and the pony had to be treated after it fell down the stairs.

The successful first series of La Ferme Célébrités ended last week. Based on the US show The Farm, it starred 14 B-list French celebrities - actors, TV presenters, has-been singers, ex-models and a one-time beauty queen - who were locked in a remote farmhouse for 70 days without running water, electricity or phones and obliged to milk cows and goats, shear sheep, and help farm animals give birth.

The programme regularly drew audiences of more than 8 million, despite complaints from angry farmers who tried on several occasions to break into the set and halt filming on the grounds that the show was "degrading and insulting" to France's rural community.