Sparrow shot by TV company

BBC
Credit goes to Colcam

The bird's fate was sealed when it knocked over 23,000 and organisers feared it could knock down more. An exterminator cornered the sparrow and shot it.

The backlash followed as soon as the news got out - especially as the common house sparrow was put on the endangered list in the Netherlands last year.

That makes the shooting illegal, doesn't it?

But Big Brother creators Endemol said things started to get out of hand when staff started receiving threats.

"It was something we wish would never have happened at all," Endemol spokesman Jeroen van Waardenberg told the BBC News website. "But we made a decision because the project was very important to us and is to be screened in 16 countries."

Who cares about one stupid little bird compared to the international success of a domino-record programme?

"I just wish we could channel all this energy that went into one dead sparrow into saving the species," he said.

That's just plain sick.