Jordan Banjo has addressed the backlash after he welcomed a dog with cropped ears into his family.
The Britain’s Got Talent winner gave fans a glimpse at his new Cane Corso, Sergio, earlier this week.
Shortly after the post went live, the Diversity dancer was bombarded with messages from upset fans who pointed out that the pooch’s ears had been cropped – a painful procedure that is illegal in the UK.
Speaking of all the backlash, the 27-year-old revealed he felt ‘awful’ after this had been pointed out, sharing a lengthy statement.
Taking to his Instagram story, he penned: ’Hey guys… So I’m getting so many DMs about Sergio and his ears… I’ve tried to reply to a bunch of people, but there’s too many and I guess it’s good to reply to everyone and so people understand my position, hopefully people in my DMs still see this even if you don’t follow me.
‘I can’t pretend to have known all of the information on cropped ears, I don’t even want to pretend to be misinformed, to be blunt I literally didn’t even think about it in the first instance.
‘I didn’t get his ears cut, I didn’t even import him, first time I saw Serg he was 6 months old. Genuinely I appreciate the messages and it upsets me to think that Sergio or any dog goes through this, purely to look “cooler” [sic].’
‘I turned the comments off because I started getting comments and it was a shock because it hadn’t even come into my head,’ he continued. ‘I saw Sergio, saw his temperament, how he is as a character and fell in love with him and wanted him as part of my family.
‘Now I feel awful, really wish it wasn’t the case but now what do I do?? I’m very rarely in the business of explaining myself but when I feel somethings wrongI’ll hold my hands up!
‘Definitely wish his ears had been left but he’s my dog now, not really sure what else I can say apart I appreciate the messages and advice, thank you all for caring enough to say something and a lot of you in a very polite and educational way, and I hope I make better choices in regards to Serg in the future [sic].’
Ear cropping – the procedure of cutting off the floppy parts of a dog’s ears – is usually done for cosmetic reasons, and is illegal in the UK.
Jordan unveiled Sergio as the ‘new addition to the Banjo clan’ in an Instagram post earlier this week – which is still visible on his page.
However, the I’m A Celebrity star has taken comments off the post.
‘Been a long time coming and it’s been a bit crazy having to wait for the right time and right things to fall into place but here we are,’ he captioned the upload.
‘Still in the middle of training and got a while to go but can’t believe how beautiful he is and shout out to Garry and the whole @ambassadorprotectiondogs team, they are incredible, make sure you’re following them to see how Serge gets on.’
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