Do they allow cooking shows over there? Where they actually cook (gasp!) chickens and such? So would it be okay for them to cook a chicken that they had bought at the market, but they couldn’t kill one on the show? What is the difference?
(And btw, I don’t think you could pay me enough money to eat a rat! I’d eat one if I were truly starving ... but not for money. Ick.)
The difference is in the manner of killing. I haven't seen the video of the rat-killing, but if it was a clean, quick kill, the animal welfare folks are just grandstanding. If the animal was essentially tortured to death, even if it's a rat, the producers should have stepped in to stop it.