US TV anchor labels Rudd 'camel serial killer'

5 Aug 2009, 1:51 pm   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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Kevin Rudd has been condemned by US TV anchor Erin Burnett over plans for a camel cull in the outback

Kevin Rudd has been condemned by US TV anchor Erin Burnett over plans for a camel cull in the outback

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been labelled a serial killer on US TV by a presenter angered at plans for a camel cull in the outback.

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Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been labelled a serial killer on US TV by a presenter angered at plans for a camel cull in the Australian outback.

Erin Burnett, an anchor on American financial news channel CNBC, launched a stinging attack on Mr Rudd following his decision to spend AU$19 million to cull feral camels.

"There is a serial killer in Australia and we are going to put a picture up so we can see who it is," a stern-faced Burnett said.

A large photo of Rudd was then shown.

"That would be the prime minister of Australia Kevin Rudd," Burnett said. "He has launched air strikes - air strikes - against camels in the outback."

Burnett, with a stuffed toy camel sitting in front of her, broke away from her usual analysis of stock movements on Wall St to vent about the camel cull.

Meat, milk 'wasted'

She raised the issue during a segment with CNBC's colourful financial guru Jim Cramer.

Burnett said there were one million camels living wild in Australia and that the animals would be shot.

"They are slaughtering them?" Cramer, looking shocked, asked Burnett.

"They are slaughtering them," she replied.

Burnett also complained that the meat and milk from the camels would be wasted.

"Apparently there is a billion dollars of meat out there," she said.

"Are they going to do anything with it?" Cramer asked.

'Camelcide' quip

"No. They're just slaughtering them," she said.

"That's genocide. Camelcide," Cramer commented.

Burnett then told Cramer she hoped Australians would see her segment. "I hope they have this on in the morning in Australia."

Burnett is a former anchor with Bloomberg TV and a vice president at financial company Citigroup.

She has a loyal male following in the US and is a favourite of US men's magazine Maxim - in 2007 she posed for a risque photo shoot for Maxim that included a topless cover.

She also made the magazine's top 10 "Hottest News Anchor" list.

 

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Your Comments

ok

grac--e - from qld, 4 years ago

oh my god! people cant expect us to eat camel meat! they are camels, and they are over populating the aussie outback! its ok. there are plenty more where they came from!

mass murders

michael - from queensland, 4 years ago

You've got to be joking, I can see it now, C130 gunships firing tracer rounds at camels below, our crack SAS teams abseiling down ropes from blackhawks in full combat gear and then double tapping these camels as they lay dying.
These Yanks really have NFI do they?
We call it culling, what they do in the rest of the world is murdering and genocide, but hey you hide behind your foreign policy, but the world is waking up to your moronic ways.
Lets send the meat overseas

thats pretty funny

dave - from edinburgh atm, 4 years ago

Gotta love a random comment like that.
I'm not too informed about the issues involved but I'm fairly sure she isn't either.
Bit of a laugh. American media eh?

Dr

Michael Thomas - from Australia, 4 years ago

Oh, and while we're on the topic of America's offensive intrusion into Australian domestic politics, can they explain why on earth America slapped a quota on Australian lamb exports to the USA about a decade ago for base domestic political objectives?
World's greatest free-trade advocates??? Rubbish!
Ozzie newsreaders... if reciprocality is alive and well, you now apparently have carte-blanche to launch stinging criticisms on US stupidity!!!

Erin Burnnett/ Sarah Palin

Jenifer Gibson - from Perth, 4 years ago

Although I feel for all feral animals who fall prey to the violence of the humans who put them there in the first place, this Erin Burnnett should be made to comment on the bat-crap-crazy Sarah Palin, the disgraced, ethics challenged, forced-to-resign, ex-governor of Alaska and her filthy aerial "cull" of the NATIVE North American wolves!

Camel

Mark - from Australia, 4 years ago

Camels do not and will never belong in outback Australia.
They do more damage than they are worth.
I agree with Rudd.

Mr

Christian - from Sydney, 4 years ago

Isn't that just like the Yanks, accuse everyone else of doing wrong.
Are they so innocent?

export instead of cull

Dave McAnulty - from St Kilda, 4 years ago

I would have thought that 'expressions of interest' would have been sought for the live export of these camels to the Middle East.
The Australian Outback is one of the very few (if not last) places where wild camels are found.
Though only there for around 100 years, their possible pedigree should be able to be traced from the people who brought them over to Australia (and subsequently released them after the were made redundant).

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