Really?

Guilty of not expediating a rat's death? I assume it's not like they cut it's throat and sat there laughing for a minute and a half and just waiting for it to die. I don't know that for sure as I haven't watched the program since its boring US debut in 2000. But like Fishy said, they're not experts at slaughtering animals. Anyone should do this if they're hungry enough.

I just wish ITV would have the guts up to stand up to this rather than (essentially) paying the prosecution off.

I did make the disclaimer I didn't know if they had simply waited or not; you have apparently ignored that. I would agree that ITV should have defended; I suspect they wanted to appear remorseful in the eyes of the public, who they perceived as being against them. If so, they made an eror of judgement; I'm sure the public would've stuck by them.

It's unlikely that they "sat there laughing" but it's not inconceivable that they could have been fascinated by its dying; in which case I would have preferred that the contestants acknowledge that it was their responsibility to finish it off and that they failed to do so in a timely or efficient manner. Ultimately, neither this article nor the sources really explains what happened, and the show's viewer base does not seem to include anyone who comments on Wikinews, so all we can do is discuss possibilities, and it's easy to run away with assumptions like I did when I opened the thread. I admit I had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.