Shock as Blue Peter reveals new show pet to be a rabid wolf

The BBC has raised eyebrows after introducing a rabies-riddled wolf as the newest member of the Blue Peter team.

The wolf, currently in the terrifying hallucination phase of the disease, is the first pet to feature regularly on the show that isn’t a dog, a cat or a tortoise.

Wearing protective goggles and gloves, presenter Simon Williams removed the wolf from the triple-locked cage where it lives, and dragged it out with a chain to present it to the camera on yesterday’s show.

“Look, everybody at home – we said we needed a new pet, and here’s one I illegally purchased earlier on the dark web.

“Snuffles here is a rabid wolf, and a very friendly one at that! And he will be joining us every week in the studio and will naturally meet all the guests that come into the show in the same way that the various pets we’ve had before him did.”

He continued, “You may think that he’s incredibly dangerous, and you’d be right.

“He’s already infected one of the showrunners, but apart from that he’s settling in nicely, and at the end of the day he’s feeling a bit under the weather so the least we could do is look after him for a bit.”

BBC spokesperson Christopher James defended the choice of pet, saying, “Viewing figures have been dropping steadily since Konnie Huq left, so we thought this would spice things up a bit and inject a much-needed element of danger to the show.

“You’ll be tuning in next week, I guarantee it.”