"The machete, the machete!"
It is 11:30 pm, Friday March 12, when several hungry candidates of “Koh-Lanta” encourage Arnaud to take action.
Objective: kill a stingray to make it the meal of the day.
Missed.
The weapon passes next to the fleeing animal.
“It looked like a savage,” comments a red teammate.
Two minutes later in the image, the opportunity arises.
"I try it, eh", loose the 36-year-old market gardener.
This time, the machete seems to have reached its target, without certainty since it is empty-handed that Arnaud will return to the camp.
Too violent a sequence?
Some viewers, including a former candidate of "Koh-Lanta" who wishes to remain anonymous according to our information, alerted PETA.
In the process, the association engaged against animal suffering sent a letter to the management of TF1 to denounce "intolerable practices towards sentient beings, who feel fear and pain", we learned on Tuesday.
PETA calls on the channel "to no longer allow or support cruel practices towards animals" and to put in place "an animal welfare policy" on the screen.
A "harmful message to the youngest"
Another scene pointed out, that of the moray eel hunt.
Flushed out of a rock with the help of a spear, what a candidate thinks to be "an eel" falls on Arnaud, more determined than ever.
The latter gives him two violent kicks before crushing him under his basketball.
The moray then tries to bite it, then manages to slip away.
Images which will also be rebroadcast in slow motion a few minutes later, just before the advice of this first episode of season 22, watched by 5.7 million viewers.
"Torturing and killing animals on screen is an extremely immoral way of trying to attract viewers, especially at a time when respect for animals is increasingly important to everyone," we believe. PETA.
In addition, it sends a harmful message to the younger ones, who view these cruel scenes which are passed off as entertainment.
"
Friday, 59% of viewers aged 4 to 14 were in front of TF1.
Contacted, neither the chain nor Adventure Line productions, which produces this program presented by Denis Brogniart, wished to speak.