Cockroach eating

[Guest guest]

TORONTO (Reuters) - An animal rights group called Tuesday for a North

American theme park operator to cancel a competition in which people

will try to break the world cockroach-eating record.

 

Theme park operator Six Flags Inc, based in New York, is staging the

contest as part of a promotion leading up to Halloween in which it is

also offering customers free entry or line-jumping advantages if they

eat a live Madagascar hissing cockroach.

 

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it had

been flooded with calls from children, adults and even anonymous

employees of Six Flags opposing the record-breaking contest and the

overall promotion.

 

" Insects do not deserve to be eaten alive especially for a gratuitous

marketing gimmick, " PETA spokeswoman Jackie Vergerio told Reuters.

 

The competition to beat the world cockroach eating record is being

held Friday at a Six Flags park in Gurnee, Illinois. Anyone who beats

the record will win a season pass for four people for 2007 with VIP

queue-jumping status.

 

Competitors will try to break the current world record, which is held

by Ken Edwards of Derbyshire, England, who devoured 36 Madagascar

hissing cockroaches in one minute in 2001.

 

However Six Flags spokesman James Taylor said the only complaints the

company had received were from people who did not have the

opportunity to sign up and eat a cockroach because

 

only 12 of its 30 parks in the United States, Canada, and Mexico were

participating in the promotion.

 

Taylor dismissed any health concerns, saying the cockroaches were

raised in a sterile environment and were as safe to eat as shrimp or

lobster with high nutritional value.

 

Madagascar hissing cockroaches are large, wingless cockroaches that

can grow to between 1.5 to 3 inches.

 

Taylor said no one who had indulged in this rare delicacy had

complained.

 

" It's something that's supposed to be scary, it's icky, it's gross,

it's Halloween fun and it's just one small part of the haunted houses

and thrilling rides going on. "