Freek Vonk arouses a lot of annoyance at Jan Slagter with his larval hobby that has gotten out of hand. The boss of Omroep MAX thinks Eva Jinek’s ex-boyfriend is an incredible attention grabber.
Lately Freek Vonk has been in the news a lot because he has all kinds of larvae growing in his leg. He contracted them in Costa Rica and just left them there to see how they would naturally come out of his body. He gave the critters names – Dew, Dew and Louw – and everything was used up social media thrown.
Resistance at Jan
Jan Slagter finds it really annoying, he confesses NPO Radio 1. “Why does this provoke so much resistance from you?”, Ghislaine Plag, the presenter on duty, asks the boss of Omroep MAX.
Then Jan says: “Yes, you know, I think this is very over the top. That you are going to make a mini-documentary about the newborn larva Louie and that Dewey and Dewey are already dead… And then you write: ‘This has never happened before that a documentary will be made, that we are the first in the world to describe this fascinating being able to film an animal.’”
“Guys, stop”
It has all been made so enormously, says Jan. “Also that he suffered from leg contractions, severe shooting pains. Then I think: yes, guys, stop for a while. Just act normal. You know… Vonk and his cameraman were awake for a total of 55 hours to follow Kwak’s birth.”
He continues: “I’m not saying it is, but it looks like… It won’t be, but it looks like he put them in to… I mean, if you have a larva in your leg, then go you go to the doctor and have it cut out and it’s done. But a mini documentary? No, I find it distasteful, I think it’s over the top.”
Attention grabber
He’s just a sensational man, Jan continues. “If this is the measure of… This is attention seeking… I think it’s really a bit childish. What’s next? That a spider is put in his left ear and that he comes out and that he is going to film it? There are borders.”
He concludes: “If you want to interest children in biology and the animal world, fine, but this is not natural. This has nothing to do with biology. I just got sick when I read it. It’s a business model, it’s about clicks, it’s about followers. (…) It’s an experiment? Get out now!”
Freek Vonk and his larval adventure: