Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have been criticised by PETA over I'm A Celeb's 'relentless reign of animal exploitation', with Halloween costumes calling out the 'tacky and cruel spectacle'. 

The show's notorious Bushtucker trials, which see celebrities locked in with live animals and forced to eat creatures such as spiders, mealworms and cockroaches, have sparked fierce controversy over the years.

PETA have long campaigned against the show, saying that 'animal abuse is not entertainment'.

Now, with Spooky season upon us, the animal rights group have created new Ant and Dec costumes that turn the I'm a Celeb presenters into perpetrators at a grisly crime scene. 

The costumes call out the duo's long-running cruelty towards frogs, crocodiles, spiders, rats, insects, and other animals who have been killed, eaten, and subjected to stressful stunts for the show's eating trials.

The costume, retailing at £95, is now available to order on the PETA website. All proceeds will benefit PETA's work to end animal exploitation. 

But behind the Halloween spoof is a history of real-life horrors, PETA claims.

The ITV show has confined frogs and other animals in inescapable chambers with screaming, flailing contestants during the trials, and served animals' genitals, organs, and other body parts as food. 

The programme's abuse of animals has prompted thousands of complaints to Ofcom, and PETA has called on Ant and Dec to step down from the show.

'Unlike the celebrities who volunteer to enter the jungle, animals never sign up to be confined, terrified, or killed for a cheap laugh,' says PETA Vice President of Programmes Elisa Allen. 

'PETA's Halloween costumes put Ant and Dec's complicity in the spotlight and call on ITV to cut cruelty from the script and get the animals out of there.'

In 2009, ITV faced prosecution in Australia after contestant Gino D'Acampo killed a rat and cooked the animal for a meal during filming.

The following year, the programme pleaded guilty to two charges of cruelty to animals and paid a fine. 

And in 2018, footage from the programme showed a crocodile used in a Bushtucker Trial with the animal's mouth taped shut. 

The incidents prompted widespread criticism over the programme's treatment of animals.

PETA also branded Ofcom 'shameful' in 2019 when I'm A Celebrity avoided a rap from the TV watchdog despite 80 people complaining about the use of live animals in the 2018 season.

When the series was moved temporarily to the UK during the Covid pandemic, British animal welfare series RSPCA also condemned the show.

Responding to PETA, an I'm A Celebrity spokesman previously told the Daily Mail: 'We are always fully transparent about our protocols and we have a very strict environmental plan in place on the show.

'As a production, we comply with all regional and national laws concerning the use of insects, animals and reptiles.

'Welfare and safety is always the primary priority on any of our programmes, and at any Bushtucker trial that features animals, we have qualified and experienced animal handlers on site at all times.

'We inform the RSPCA NSW of all of our activities on the show and they have an open invitation to attend the site at any time.

'We cannot stress enough that we have rigorous protocols in place to ensure that animals are handled safely at all times, before, during and after any filming has taken place, in compliance with all regional and national laws.'

PETA encourages everyone to call on ITV Studios to stop abusing animals.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that 'animals are not ours to use for entertainment or abuse in any other way' – points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits. 

For more information, please visit PETA.org.ukor follow PETA on Facebook, X, TikTok, or Instagram.