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The Buzz

By Erika Engle

Saturday, March 31, 2001

Animal abuse by
radio DJs is no joke

LUCKY we live Hawaii, where radio personalities only pretend to do strange things with animals.

The morning man at WXTB FM in Tampa, Fla., owned by Texas-based Clear Channel Communications Inc., was charged Thursday with third-degree felony cruelty to animals, along with his producer and two listeners for the Feb. 27 castration and slaughter of a wild boar. A Tampa police homicide detective investigated the case, for reasons which are unclear.

Bail for Todd Clem, 35, aka "Bubba the Love Sponge," and producer Brent Hatley, 29, was set at $10,000. Clem was suspended without pay for 15 days, but was expected to be back on the air after turning himself in and posting bail late Thursday.

According to news reports in Tampa, animal rights groups have persuaded dozens of advertisers to boycott the radio station since the boar was killed in the radio station parking lot. One of the two listeners charged in the case is a hunter who captured the animal; the other allegedly held the animal down during the castration and slaughter.

Clear Channel Hawaii Market Manager Chuck Cotton declined comment on the events in Tampa, but spoke of his own stations. "We have DJs doing crazy things, but not with real animals," he said. Cotton said he has received inquiries from the Humane Society asking whether "they really put a bunny in the dryer," but Cotton assured them the on-air talk was, "just a gag, they don't really do things like that."

Officials from the Hawaiian Humane Society don't even like pretending. They call radio station managers because the society receives phone calls from concerned citizens.

"Even making jokes about it is very dangerous and minimizes the suffering that would be caused," society President Pamela Burns said.

Burns said the types of calls they receive are from radio listeners who don't consider talk of animal torture a form of humorous entertainment, and from others who are concerned that real animals may actually be involved.

"Making light (of animal abuse) is just not funny and should not be done in a civilized society," she said.

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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4757, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com