BLUE Peter will make its pets fight on screen if viewers don't pay its £50,000 fine for faking a competition result, the show's editor said last night.
Roger Morton will set Mabel the rescue dog on Shelley the tortoise if viewers do not pledge at least £10,000 by the end of the week.
Mabel and Lucy the Golden Retriever will then go head-to-head in the Italian Sunken Garden if the full £50,000 is not donated by the end of July.
Phone-in scams, extortion and dog fights have become increasingly common in the Blue Peter studio since the show was taken over by Triad gangs in 2003.
Mr Morton said Blue Peter was only caught because of a 'stupid fucking speccy girl' who had visited the show.
"We had got clean away with our little scam until that frumpy cow dropped us in it. It was a kid who ratted on us, so it's the kids who have to pay."
The editor said children could send in old milk bottle tops and plastic bottles 'if they must', but he was more interested in pocket money and parent’s credit card details.
He added: "Parents probably don't want their children turned into bedwetting neurotics by having to witness a much loved animal being eviscerated live on TV."
Viewers could also raise money by running their own fake games at school or kidnapping their friends' pets and holding them for ransom, he said.
The BBC gave it's full backing to the latest Blue Peter fundraising appeal.
A spokesman said: "The alternative would be for us to ask the licence fee payer to pay the fine and that would just be an insult, wouldn't it?"
