Kady McDermott has been criticised for fighting a ‘pointless debate’ that pet owners should have the same rights as parents on Good Morning Britain on Monday.
The Love Island star, 28, argued that animal owners shouldn’t have to book annual leave for their sick pet and employers should be more lenient in the same as they are with parents when their children are ill.
Appearing live on the show with her pet pooch Cobi, Kady told hosts Ed Balls, 57, and Susanna Reid, 53, that employers should be ‘accommodating’ to everyone because ‘children are a choice and so are pets’.
She said: ‘I’m self employed. If I want to stay at home I can but he [her dog] was quite ill a few years ago and I was on a photo shoot and they let me go home. They had photographers and everything and we stopped.
‘My mum has four dogs and luckily her employer is understanding and if she has a vet appointment they will let her leave early. I think its crucial employers should be accommodating.’
Former Apprentice star Simba Rwambiwa, who has a one-year-old son, argued: ‘We can’t sit here and say a child’s life has the same value as a dog.
‘We should keep maternity leave and paternity leave as that. Take annual leave if your pet needs to go to the vet, they’re separate things.
‘If your pet has a litter you need to take annual leave, you know they are going to have those pups.
‘My focus is my son, where does it end, we can’t keep allowing people to leave work for a variety of reasons.’
Kady added: ‘There shouldn’t be a difference. Pets are a choice the same kids are a choice.
‘Some people can’t have kids or choose not to have kids. Obviously don’t take weeks off for dogs if he needs an appointment but a day or two is fine.’
Host Ed asked the reality star: ‘If you had a call on the way to a shoot and they said the shoot’s off the photographer’s goldfish is sick, what would you say?’
Kady replied: ‘A goldfish is different you can’t tell. I’m a pet lover and because I’ve been there I’d be like OK look after it’.
ITV viewers quickly took to X to complain about the ‘pointless debate’ as they claimed workers would ‘abuse’ the system.
One wrote: ‘More pointless debating on GMB’.
Another added: ‘No because people would abuse it’.
A third said: ‘There’s a pattern to the people they get on for the nonsense debates’.
A fourth penned: ‘Nothing to chat about today.’
Kady shot to fame on the second series of Love Island back in 2016, before returning for another hope at finding love as a bombshell for the 10th season in 2023.
