Kady McDermott has been criticized for waging 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 pet owners do not need to book annual leave for their sick pet and that employers should be more lenient in the same way they are towards parents when their children are ill.
Appearing live on the show with her pet Cobi, Kady told presenters Ed Balls, 57, and Susanna Reid, 53, that employers should be “easy” for everyone because “children are a choice and so are pets.”
She said: ‘I’m self-employed. If I want to stay home I can, but he (her dog) was quite sick a few years ago and I was on a photo shoot and they let me go home. They had photographers and stuff and we stopped.
‘My mother has four dogs and fortunately her employer is understanding and if she has a vet appointment, they let her leave early. I think the critical employers need to be accommodating.”
Kady McDermott has been criticized for having 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 pet owners don’t need to book annual leave for their sick pet and that employers should be more lenient (pictured with her dog Cobi in 2017)
Former student star Simba Rwambiwa, who has a one-year-old son, argued: “We cannot sit here and say that a child’s life has the same value as that of a dog.
‘We must keep maternity and paternity leave this way. Take annual leave if your pet needs to go to the vet, which are separate things.
‘If your pet has a litter you have to take annual leave, you know they are going to have those puppies.
‘My focus is on my son. Where does it end? We cannot continue to allow people to leave work for a variety of reasons.”
Kady added, “There should be no difference. Pets are a choice, just like children are a choice.
‘Some people cannot have children or choose not to have children. 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 got a call on the way to a shoot and they said the shoot is off, the photographer’s goldfish is sick, what would you say?”
Kady replied: ‘A goldfish is different, you don’t know that. I am an animal lover and having been there I would like to take care of them’.
She told presenters Ed Balls, 57, and Susanna Reid, 53, that employers should be “easy on everyone” because “children are a choice and so are pets.”
Former student star Simba Rwambiwa, who has a one-year-old son, argued: ‘We cannot sit here and say that a child’s life has the same value as a dog’
Kady added, “Some people can’t have children or choose not to have children. Obviously don’t take weeks off for dogs if he needs an appointment, but a day or two is fine.’
ITV viewers quickly took to X to complain about the ‘pointless debate’ as they claimed workers were ‘abusing’ the system.
One wrote: ‘More useless debates on GMB’.
Another added: ‘No, because people would take advantage of it.’
A third said: ‘There’s a pattern to the people they approach for bullshit debates.’
A fourth wrote: ‘Nothing to talk about today.’
Kady shot to fame with the second series of Love Island in 2016, before returning for another bombshell hope of finding love for the tenth season in 2023.
ITV viewers quickly took to X to complain about the ‘pointless debate’ as they claimed workers were ‘abusing’ the system
