BBC complaint update RE skinny & lame horse

[Meowy Catkin]

I don't know how many of you will remember but I first joined HHO to express my frustration with the BBC. It was the first time that I had ever complained about a programme and I was horrified by their reply. They hadn't even got the programme that I had comlained about correct even though it was entered correctly on the complain form.

Thread here. http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=385277

I finally got this further reply from them today

Thank you for your follow up email about World’s Strictest Parents. First of all, we sincerely apologise that we are responding so late to your response to our previous reply. The address you emailed should have redirected you to our webform but did not and we apologise if you have made further attempts to contact us.

Your further concerns were passed to Sam Whittaker, the Executive Producer at Twenty Twenty Television who produce World’s Strictest Parents for the BBC. Sam has asked us to pass on his response to you:

“I am very sorry that you felt that we had ‘used an animal’s suffering as entertainment,’ and hope that I can reassure you that we had no intention of doing any such thing during the making of World’s Strictest Parents.

As you are aware the filming of this Episode took place in Belize, which is one of the poorest countries in the western Hemisphere. The sequence in question was included to demonstrate some of the changes that the British teenager Calvin had made during his time in Belize. When he arrived in the country he was appalled by the physical nature of the work he was asked to do and was unwilling to join in the farm related activities offered by the family. His willingness to get on the horse at the end of the programme was symptomatic of the emotional progress he made whilst staying with the family.

The idea of him getting on a horse was instigated by the family and the horse in question was selected by the family, with absolutely no input from the production team on the ground.

As you rightly suggest, it would be utterly wrong for a production team to specifically select any animal to take on a role for which it was not physically capable. I hope you can accept my assurance that this absolutely did not happen here.

As to whether we should have intervened, I think it fair to say that the family, who run a fifty acre farm, were the experts on the ground in terms of what they thought the horse was capable of. The team had no reason to suspect that the family were in anyway abusive of other animals on the farm, and no reason to suppose that they would subject that particular horse to unreasonable treatment. I hope that I can offer some reassurance in that the boy was astride the horse for little more than a minute before dismounting and did not ride more than the step or two depicted in the programme. After dismounting, the horse was returned to the paddock where it fed and roamed freely.

Please do feel free to get in touch directly if there is anything more I can do to assist you”.

I hope this reply addresses your concerns but if you believe a serious and specific breach of the BBC's Editorial Guidelines has occurred here, and you wish to pursue this complaint further, you can contact the BBC's Editorial Complaints Unit, within 20 working days quoting reference number CAS-594178-KZJBM7 and they will carry out an independent investigation.
You can write to them at the following address:

Editorial Complaints Unit
BBC
Room 5168
White City
201 Wood Lane
London
W12 7TS

Alternatively you can email the Unit at the address: ecu@bbc.co.uk, but please note that complaints submitted via e-mail must include a postal address as ECU findings are sent by letter.

Whether or not you choose to pursue your complaint with the ECU please be assured your further concerns have been registered.


Yours sincerely

Sarah Greatrex
Senior Complaints Advisor
BBC Audience Services

NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform on the BBC Complaints website http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints, quoting any case number we provided.

 

[BBH]

I haven't read the thread previously but all I would say about the answer is that she has attempted to at least give you a personal relevant response and not just trotted out a standard proforma letter.

 

[Kaylum]

Your lucky to get a response from them. I wrote to watchdog about their presenters not wearing hi-viz on their motorcycle and had no response. They just dont care about safety. But that has given me an idea to actually write to the complaints department. Thanks for that.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Yes, I had actually given up on hearing from them again. I do feel that the horse in question was SO thin and lame that only a cretin would not see what a bad state it was in. I do understand that Belize is a poor country but the boy says something along the lines of, 'no, not that one, that one's ugly!' Which certainly gives the impression that their other horses were in a far better condition.

It's all too late now to help the horse. I hope that the family were able to feed it up and get it sound.