Rights group objects to animal psychics

BERLIN, June 27 (UPI) -- A German animal rights group said it is concerned about the dignity of animals being used as soccer-predicting psychics by media outlets.

The Tierschutzbund animal rights group said the Euro 2012 tournament has led TV and radio stations to overuse the psychic animal gimmick, which was inspired by Paul the octopus, a cephalopod that made headlines with a string of successful World Cup predictions in 2010, the BBC reported Wednesday.

"These days, everybody who has an animal seems to put it in front of a camera," said Marius Tunte of Tierschutzbund. "Every station has its own animal."

The group said it was particularly upset about an Internet radio station using a python named Aldo to make predictions by choosing between two rats representing different teams.

"Unnecessary suffering is being inflicted purely for the sake of enjoyment," the group said.