Beyonce Knowles has been reprimanded by animal rights group People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after boasting about taping a baby alligator’s mouth shut at a photo shoot for her new album. After consulting with British reptile biology expert Clifford Warwick, PETA activists are snapping back at the pop star for allowing something so cruel to take place. Knowles upset the animal activists by telling September’s (06) Arena magazine that the taping incident was “my bright idea,” adding the reptile was so distressed, “he peed on me.”

Warwick has now teamed up with PETA to make sure Knowles knows that what she did was both cruel and insensitive. In a letter to the pop star, he writes, “Humans and alligators are not natural bedfellows, and the two should not mix at events such as photo-shoots. In my view, doing so is arguably abusive to an animal. “Humans have historically treated alligators badly. Skin and meat traders ranch them and slaughter them via slices through their spinal cords or bludgeon them with hammers. The alligator you handled probably faces this same end, after a life of confinement in captivity. “It seems a great pity that this animal’s problems should be added to in the course of promoting your own work.”

- Contact Music