A BBC presenter was forced to suffocate a live goat with his bare hands in shocking scenes.
The Tribe with Bruce Parry returns to BBC Two on Sunday night, marking Bruce’s first TV project in a decade.
The moment Bruce Parry suffocated a goat was captured on camera[/caption]
The presenter was told to kill the goat[/caption]
He was visibly shakedn by the experience[/caption]
In episodes already on BBC iPlayer, the 56-year-old finds himself in the deep end quite quickly, with episode two seeing him meet an indigenous tribe called The Mucubal in Angola.
The star is gifted a goat by one of the tribe’s leaders as a welcome, and a perplexed Bruce asks what he should do with it.
He’s told he must kill it then and there, and Bruce looks horrified.
In a voiceover, he explains that animals are essential for the tribe for sustenance, currency and gifts.
It is also a demonstration of the man’s wealth and generosity, meaning it would be extremely rude to reject the offering.
A nervous Bruce asks how to kill the goat and other men show him how they use suffocation.
Bruce explains to viewers that they use that technique so they don’t waste the animal’s nutrient-rich blood.
The men then help hold the screaming goat down while a Bruce places his hands around the goat’s mouth and nostrils to suffocate him.
As the stomach-churning scene continues and the goat jolts, Bruce admits: “This is the most gruesome thing I have ever done.”
He then repeats “Oh my God” on a number of occasions and says: “I wasn’t given any time to consider it or anything, it’s like they held it and said you have to hold this now…so I did.”
An emotional Bruce is then told the goat is dead and he takes a deep breath as he sits back.
He then says: “It’s a very odd feeling, feeling the life force of an animal disappear in your own hands…not a feeling I’d necessarily want to have again.”
Speaking about the shocking moment in a new interview with Radio Times ahead of the show’s release, Bruce recalled how hard it was to carry out.
He said: “It was difficult, suffocating a goat.
“But I could be the most ethically minded person at home in the UK but still by simply getting on a bus, I will have a much larger impact on the planet than any one of these people. Who am I to judge them?”
Tribe with Bruce Parry begins on Sunday, March 30 at 9pm on BBC Two.
