I WATCHED in horror a TV programme in which a group of men trapped and killed a crocodile in a lagoon on an uninhabited Pacific island.

The pack, who were fired up and eager to kill, had apparently been trained in survival techniques by adventurer Bear Grylls, but to me they didn’t seem to know what they were doing.

It was painful watching this creature, who was innocently going about its business, being brutally killed for the sake of entertainment.

I’ve often watched TV documentaries about hunters from remote tribes in the Amazonian rain forest or African plains, seeking out and killing prey for food. I have no problem with that – they are killing for their livelihood, something they have done for generations, not for a reality TV show.

I’ve read about European seafarers of old, whose discovery of desert islands on the opposite side of the world led to the extinction of certain species through fires and hunting.

You’d think in the 21st century we would be more responsible, but we haven’t moved on much – dropping a bunch of people into a similar setting and letting them loose with no food or water.

It really does leave a nasty taste in the mouth. Apparently on the same show, on an island featuring female contestants, piglets were killed.

But, sadly, I’m in the minority in feeling such outrage. The massively-popular I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! uses countless insects in their ‘bushtucker trials’, which contestants squash and even eat alive without a second thought.

I won’t have it on in our house, but it is among the most watched programmes on TV; millions think it’s hilarious.

The awful thing is, few seem to think abusing creatures in this way is cruel. It sends out completely the wrong message.

In the fight for higher viewing figures, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone brought back bear-baiting and stuck it on the TV, or if they screened bullfighting or hare coursing on Saturday night instead of Match Of The Day. My guess is that any of these so-called sports would pull in record numbers of viewers.

I don’t even like animal acts on Britain’s Got Talent. Dogs should be chasing balls in parks, not being taught how to dance the pasodoble or stand in as a ventriloquist’s dummy, as the latest so-called doggy sensation recently did.

It turns out that The Island’s croc-kill has caused a rumpus. The show’s producers believed the animal killed by the men to be a common caiman – as if that is acceptable – but it turned out to be an endangered American crocodile. The two aren’t even similar, one being markedly larger than the other.

I rest my case.