Do you think Ads cross the line sometimes? If so, where do we draw the line? Please read and let me know!
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007, 08:41 GMT
An online advert showing a tortoise being shot into space has been pulled after it was linked to an incident when a terrapin was tied to a lit firework.
The creature was fired into a garden in Wrexham on Bonfire Night and found by a dog. It suffered a cracked shell, bumped head and a bleeding mouth.
The RSPCA linked the incident with the Virgin Media broadband advert which uses a cartoon tortoise.
The company apologised for any offence and said the advert had been stopped.
The RSPCA had accused Virgin Media of depicting animal cruelty with its cartoon image of a lit firework being used to fire a tortoise into space, ripping off its shell in the process.
"We have stopped running our online advert, depicting a tortoise with a rocket, and sincerely apologise to anyone this may have offended," added the spokesman.
RSPCA spokesman David Bowles said the terrapin incident was not thought to be a direct copycat of the Virgin Media advert but he believed the two were connected.
He appealed for future advertising to be "thought through more carefully".
The terrapin, believed to be a female, is being cared for at a north
The charity appealed on Friday for help in catching the culprits behind what they described as a "callous and sick" act of cruelty.
It is thought the firework with the terrapin attached to it was set off on 5 November, but it was not discovered until the following morning, meaning it had lain in a garden of a house on
RSPCA officer Claire Davies, who collected the terrapin, said she was "completely lost for words" when she discovered what had happened.
"After this terrifying ordeal and lying in a cold garden all night it is a miracle that she survived," she said.
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