Top 10 Animal Disasters on Live TV

#10: Lemurs

In 2018, BBC producers thought it would be fun to report live from a zoo in Norfolk, so they sent reporter Alex Dunlop into East Anglia to see how many ring-tailed lemurs he could spot. As it happened, he spotted an awful lot, because they wouldn’t leave him alone. A lot of this clip is from before and after his report, in which he was so aggravated by the lemurs that he ended up swearing at one of them; luckily, THAT bit wasn’t live. They scratched him, bit him, and climbed all over. It’s a miracle anybody got any counting done with this much chaos around.

#9: No Food for Henry

If you’ve watched “Blue Peter” with your kids in the last few years, you’ll have been introduced to Henry, one of the most boisterous “Blue Peter” dogs the show’s ever seen. But, as dogs often do, sometimes when you want them to react to something, they’ll just refuse. That was the case when they tested whether Henry preferred shop-bought dog food to home made dog food. They released him from the lead, but he was thoroughly disappointed by both offerings and walked off rather than take a bite of either. Try as they might, they couldn’t entice him to eat.

#8: Thelma & Louise

The late and great Paul O’Grady was a famous dog lover, often bringing his dogs to set with him, with Buster and Olga even co-starring on his long-running show. So, as you’d expect, he brought two dogs, Thelma and Louise, onto “This Morning” when he appeared to promote a book launch in 2017. These weren’t HIS dogs, they were up for adoption at Battersea Dogs and Cats home, of which he was an ambassador, and they maybe got a bit too excited about being on telly. While Louise was good as gold, Thelma got onto the prop hay bales and weed not once, but twice, once right behind O’Grady. He blamed the studio for adding a fake cat to the set.

#7: Shep & the Spoons

Another iconic “Blue Peter” dog, Shep was beloved by a generation of children for his antics. In this memorable moment, he got carried away when Roy Castle demonstrated how to play the spoons. Shep was popular with viewers because he could always be relied on to get too excited, and even John Noakes had a hard time managing him when he got like this. Roy Castle was a consummate professional, though, not letting Shep distract him from his routine even when he started trying to eat the spoons. Eventually, he was wrangled off-camera to calm down away from any exciting cutlery.

#6: Spitting Alpaca

In hindsight, we’re all left wondering, what did the alpaca know that we didn’t? This blooper actually didn’t happen live, not quite; it happened just before we linked back to Holly and Phil in the studio when the alpacas were being brought on. It WAS caught on camera and immediately shown to the viewers at home, though, so we’re going to include it. The alpacas, aptly named Pete and Spitifre, took one look at Schofield and did what alpacas and llamas do best: spat on him. Although, interestingly, it was Pete that did it, not Spitfire. Holly pragmatically took herself to the other side of the studio to present and left him to it.

#5: Gordon & Zoltan

Gordon the Gopher got more than he bargained for in this edition of the classic children’s show, when Zoltan the dog took a dislike to him. The tiny pooch didn’t like Gordon at all, and kept trying to get at the puppeteer’s hand inside. It probably didn’t help that Gordon communicated entirely through squeaking, making him sound like a dog toy, though the other dog on set was unfazed. The other presenters just sat and watched for a while, and the crew can be heard laughing off-camera. But what about Chris Wright’s poor fingers underneath?

#4: Monet the Pony

These handlers were on with their guide ponies to talk about how ponies could be an alternative to guide dogs. There ARE cases when someone might find it hard to get along with a guide dog, if they’re allergic to dogs or perhaps scared of them, so maybe a pony makes sense as another option. But they are much harder to train than dogs, as was proven in this spectacular moment, when Phillip and Holly ask how easy it is to housetrain them. Perhaps Monet just got stage fright, but going by how he was totally disinterested by the studio, maybe he was just bored. Whatever the case, Monet became famous nationwide.

#3: Richard Whiteley & a Rogue Ferret

This bloke was on “Calendar” to promote his book about ferrets, and talked about how he’d been keeping ferrets for nearly all of his life. But he had very little empathy for the people out there who aren’t used to handling ferrets, which can certainly do a lot of damage if they want to. One of them bit Richard Whiteley while he tried to pet her and refused to let go. After some back and forth, someone emerged from off-camera to take the two calm ferrets away so that the pro could help Whiteley free himself. He had absolutely no sympathy, though, which just adds to the memorability of this clip.

#2: Dog on the Beach

Carol Kirkwood was out in West Wittering to give a live weather report in the summer sun, on one of the grimy beaches the UK is famous for. But it was about to get even grimier when someone’s dog wandered into shot behind her. An unexpected dog appearance is always a source of excitement, but then Carol was utterly upstaged. It squatted down and did a poo, right there on BBC Breakfast. Carol saw the dog but didn’t see the money shot of it going number two like everybody in the studio and at home did. It took the presenters a few moments to compose themselves.

#1: Lulu the Elephant

Was this live, or not? It has all the hallmarks of a live item and some BBC reports claim that it WAS broadcast live, while others state that it actually wasn’t, and was pre-recorded. But if it was pre-recorded, why did they leave in all the bits where Lulu went to the toilet all over the studio? Who knows now, but it remains British broadcasting’s most infamous animal disaster. Poor Lulu was so excited about being in the “Blue Peter” studio that she pooed and weed everywhere, and nearly knocked over Valerie Singleton. Lulu just couldn’t be tamed, causing so much mischief that you can hear one of the dogs whining somewhere off-screen. Let us know in the comments the funniest animal blooper you’ve ever seen.