OTTAWA – A radio host’s discussion about feeding hits of acid to a cat did not promote violence against animals and therefore did not breach any broadcast codes, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) said Tuesday.
The CBSC reviewed a conversation that occurred as part of the 'Evil that People Do' contest on The Biggs & Barr Show on CHTZ-FM (97.7 Htz FM, St. Catharine’s, Ontario). The contest is a recurring segment on Htz FM’s morning show where listeners call in to tell stories about mean things they have done, and the hosts award a prize to the “best” one.
On August 26, 2011, a caller named Bob told a story about how he fed hits of acid to his neighbour’s cat as an act of revenge for something he thought the neighbour had done, noting that he had done this when he was “younger and foolish”. The hosts and caller laughed about the situation, but the caller said that the cat had been unharmed. The hosts also repeatedly stated that they did not condone hurting animals and they did not award the prize to this caller.
A listener complained to the CBSC that the conversation promoted cruelty to animals. The station argued that the hosts had not condoned the act and had not awarded the prize to the caller. The CBSC’s Ontario Regional Panel examined the complaint under Clause 9(a) of the CAB Code of Ethics which prohibits the promotion, sanction or glamorization of violence on radio, and Article 9.1 of the CAB Violence Code which makes that same prohibition with specific reference to animals.
The Panel found no breach of those Code provisions because the hosts did not condone the actions and did not award the prize to that caller.
