TROUT OF ORDER
Campaigners’ fury as uni admits killing 18,000 fish
A SCOTS university has come under fire after killing more than 18,000 fish meant for scientific experiments.
Stirling University’s Institute of Aquaculture was forced to cull after laboratory work was put on hold amid the Covid pandemic.
The university used 12,214 fish “for research purposes” and said that 18,523 fish not used in research were “humanely euthanised”.
Researchers use live fish in a bid to tackle issues such as food security and conservation.
The figures, revealed in a Freedom of Information request, were branded “disappointing” by activists campaigning for an end to all animal testing in Scotland.
Bob Elliot, of charity OneKind, said: “We’re very disappointed to learn the university experimented on 12,214 animals in 2020. It also concerns us that a further 18,523 fish were killed without being used for research purposes.”
A Stirling University spokeswoman said: “We conduct regulated research with one group of animals (fish) in line with UK government legislation.
Our work has been restricted by Covid-19 during the last year. As a result, some planned experiments, including those involving juvenile fish, have had to be cancelled or postponed.
“In compliance with animal welfare legislation, the fish no longer required for experiments and not suitable for human food were humanely euthanised.”
EDITED The Major, main. John Cleese, below, as Basil doing Hitler walk and with Manuel
FAWLTY Towers is to be repeated on the BBC for the first time in eight years – with racist and rude language in two episodes edited out.
The classic comedy, which runs to 12 episodes in total, will air from next Monday as part of the Beeb’s Festival of Funny – aimed at cheering everyone up.
Last year, writer and star John Cleese, who plays Basil Fawlty, branded BBC bosses “cowardly and gutless” for temporarily removing the episode containing the Major’s racist remarks – The Germans – from the UKTV steaming platform.
Arguing the remarks were fine in context, he said: “If you put nonsense words into the mouth of someone you want to make fun of, you’re not broadcasting their views, you’re making fun of them.
“The major was an old fossil left over from decades before. We were not supporting his views, we were making fun of them.
“If people are too stupid to see that, what can one say?” But in 2013, he agreed to the words being edited out of the BBC2 repeat, which were airing in a pre-watershed slot.
At the time, some viewers accused the BBC of “airbrushing history.” Writing on the BBC’s Points of View message board, one fan said: “The point is that the major is a racist old bigot, incongruous with modern society – even in the 70s. The audience isn’t supposed to agree with him,
ALL-STAR CAST Cleese and Co they’re supposed to laugh at him. The whole episode is about xenophobia in various forms – it’s social satire.”
The controversial comments in The Germans, which first aired in 1975, are made by the cantankerous Major Gowan.
In the controversial scene, he talks about the time he took a woman to see India play cricket and uses the n-word. A separate episode, The Anniversary, starts with the Fawlty Towers sign re-arranged into a rude anagram, which is also cut.
A BBC spokeswoman said that editing out offensive language was in keeping with the BBC’s editorial policy for shows airing before 9pm.
She added: “We are excited to bring back comedy classic Fawlty Towers and are adhering to Ofcom’s language guidance and the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines and broadcasting the same, prewatershed compliant version which we broadcast in 2013.”