BSPCA Asked to Launch Animal Cruelty Investigation into ‘Fear Factor House of Fear’
For Immediate Release:
February 5, 2026
Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382
Today, PETA filed a formal complaint calling on the British Columbia SPCA to investigate Fear Factor: House of Fear, its host Johnny Knoxville, and its animal handlers for violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act—which prohibits causing an animal unnecessary suffering and distress.
Despite receiving a warning from PETA that past Fear Factor gimmicks involving live animals would likely be illegal in the Metro Vancouver area—where the reboot was filmed—the show has featured multiple “challenges” in which animals are forced into terrifying and dangerous situations. In the show’s premiere, contestants were confined from the waist up inside a plexiglass box while live rats, pigeons, snakes, crickets, or geckos were dumped on top of them from a compartment high above in the ceiling.
An expert wildlife veterinarian who viewed the footage opined that the drops put the animals at serious risk of fractures, joint dislocations, internal trauma, tendon or ligament damage, and other physical trauma, and noted that several animals appeared visibly distressed—including rats frantically climbing over each other, pigeons fluttering erratically at the container sides, and snakes coiling their bodies or attempting to climb upwards.
“Sending petrified animals crashing down onto human contestants isn’t entertainment, it’s cruelty, and it causes distress in violation of British Columbia law,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA is calling on authorities to act to stop Fear Factor illegally subjecting pigeons, snakes, rats, and other animals to terrifying stunts that can easily break their fragile bones and may have already done.”
Another cruel challenge PETA points to involved contestants scrambling through a tank of water containing six live boa constrictors to collect dead rats to drop into a container, all while trampling some of the snakes in their path.
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 people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
