Marc Métral Still Performs With ‘BGT’ Talking Dog After Animal Welfare Investigation
iTV Reading Time: 4 minutes
It’s hard to forget this ventriloquist dog act from Britain’s Got Talent. The audience and judges were astounded by Marc Métral and Miss Wendy, who posed as a talking dog. Their act was a bit too realistic, which caused fans to be concerned for Wendy’s health.
The RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was contacted by Simon Cowell after fans brought animal cruelty to his attention during their season of BGT. People thought the at the time that the 61-year-old was mistreating his dog. Fans thought that Miss Wendy was shaking during their initial on-stage performance in 2015 as if she was frightened.
RSPCA Gets Involved in BGT Dog Act
Their unique act features a remote control mouth that is placed on to Miss Wendy. During the act, Métral acts as if the dog is a ventriloquist dummy. Métral does such a good job at hiding the remote control that it seems like she is actually talking.
In 2015, Simon Cowell explained the situation on Twitter, in a very long chain of tweets:
“I thought a lot about the dog act on our show tonight. It’s no secret I love animals,” Cowell tweeted.
“I believe if you can show that animals have personalities more people will hopefully respect them and show compassion.”
Cowell then shared that the show had contacted RSPCA: “we asked the RSPCA to see Wendy in rehearsals and I was told she was happy and looked after well.”
He then continued on to thank fans for their concern for this BGT dog act. He wanted to ensure that his fans knew he handled the very serious topic.
From there, Métral went on to defend himself by saying that he had worked with Wendy since she was a puppy.
“She loves performing and I would never put her in a situation that would cause her distress,” he said. “She gets excited when we go to work and is always comfortable on stage.”
The dog owner duo ended up making it to the semi-finals of BGT before they were eliminated by public vote.
The Duos Stage Days Are Not Over
Métral and Miss Wendy actually continue to perform to this day. Although Métral does not use social media often, his Instagram is tagged in photos sharing recent performances. Including one post that announced performances in April 2019.
“Marc Métral has become a phenomenon thanks to his act of living dog that speaks, featured on the show Britain’s Got Talent,” says S2AProduction in their translated Instagram caption. “You can book your tickets to discover this international artist on April 9, 2021 at #ablis near #rambouillet”
On top of that, Métral and Miss Wendy went back to the talent show world in 2020. They auditioned for France’s Got Talent: Battle Of The Judges on June 23. This Got Talent show hosts acts that are previous winners, runners-up, semi-finalists and finalists. This format similar to America’s Got Talent: The Champions.
Since it’s been so long since their first BGT performance, it’s hard to know if their dog act is exactly the same as when they were on BGT, or not.
This audition was not in english since it was on France’s Got Talent, so some fans noticed a different dialectic in Métral’s voice. With five years between their television performances, the now 66-year-old ventriloquist has a different voice than he did in BGT. He and Miss Wendy’s voices were a lot lower than they were on BGT, but that could be do to the language change or aging.
Fans noticed was that Miss Wendy is still alive and kicking in this show. Métral did not share how old his dog is on either BGT, or France’s Got Talent. He has mentioned having her since she was two months old, though. Unfortunately, Métral and Miss Wendy were eliminated after their first performance on this show.
Miss Wendy, Where Are You Girl?
Since Métral doesn’t use social media, the last we saw of him was in a tagged photo. On July 4, he was tagged in a photo by Emmanuelle Bonneman on Instagram. You’ll quickly notice one thing about this photo, Miss Wendy isn’t featured in it.
“Last night, 500 people attended a dinner show with a superb set of artists happy to finally be able to play on stage,” said Bonneman in her translated Instagram caption. “Thanks to the Cénomane artistic company for the organization and to the artists, Quentin Godet, Guillaume Juncar, Marc Métral…”
Where was the mention about Miss Wendy?! I hope she’s is still in good health and we just don’t know it because of Métral’s social media absence. It would be tragic if the world’s best ventriloquist dog were to pass away without anyone knowing.
I’m happy to see the dog owner continuing to perform, even at his older age. It was obvious that performing came natural to him since the first time he stepped on BGT‘s stage. I hope he’s able to continue performing for however long he chooses, even if Miss Wendy is no longer in the picture.
I find it rather odd for anyone who really understand a bound between both owner and their dog. Could possibly think that Ms. Wendy is being mistreated You can see he loves her very much, and visa versa. I owned a dog like Ms Wendy and they require a lot of up keep , attention and love from their owner. I do understand (who know nothing about that breed of dog) would think that she’s being forced to perform, and treated cruelly. Of course I don’t like to see animals being treated as nothing more than a way to profit… Read more »
Thank you so much for this article and explanation. I just recently saw the act from 2015 on YouTube. I also was hoping all was well with Wendy. I loved the sweet act so much! But I’m glad Simon did a check up on the situation. You never know how things are really done, sometimes! 👍