Emmerdale slapped with Ofcom complaints from furious fans as soap ‘goes too far’

Emmerdale has come under fire once again with more Ofcom complaints from upset viewers after Tom King deliberated ran over wife Belle Dingle’s beloved dog Piper

Emmerdale has been hit with over 280 Ofcom complaints following the recent scenes showing a dog being killed.

The broadcasting watchdog has confirmed they received 282 reports in relation to episodes of the ITV soap which aired on Friday, August 16 and Monday, August 19 “in relation to to a character intentionally running over a dog with his car and the dog not surviving”.

In disturbing scenes which aired on Friday (August 16), Tom King (James Chase) deliberately ran over and injured wife Belle Dingle’s (Eden Taylor-Draper) beloved pooch to get at her.

Furious to realise he no longer had control over her, he was desperate for her to need him again. Tom was shown revving his car towards Piper as she walked around in the road after getting out of Lydia Dingle’s (Karen Blick) house.

After confirming he couldn’t save Piper on Monday (August 19), Belle quickly saw through her evil husband’s act and accused the villianous vet of causing her injuries.

It’s not the first time Tom’s treatment of Piper has sparked backlash from angry viewers. A flurry of complaints were made to Ofcom in May, after Tom was seen drugging Piper to make her sick on purpose.

Tom was shown injecting Piper with a needle, telling her she was going to be okay as part of a ploy to get Belle to return home as part of the soap’s devastating coercive control storyline.

**Piper was deliberated run over by evil Tom** (Image: (Image: ITV))

The scenes angered fans who raced to complain about the show for “going too far”. The soap even released a statement to assure fans that the dog portraying Piper was okay.

Following the backlash earlier this year, producer Laura spoke out about the scenes for the first time, explaining why they were important.

Laura explained that through research, the team found that abusers often used and targeted family pets. Laura went on to add there could be more scenes involving Piper ahead.

**Belle Dingle has been abused by husband Tom for months** (Image: ITV)

She told press at the time: “Having that cute dog, I don’t think it’s helped. Whenever you put any sort of pet in danger on Emmerdale or anything, everyone goes up in arms about it. So did I expect it? Yeah, but Piper will definitely have a future role in the story. And you know, and again this is research led, I’m joking about it but it’s research led.

“One of the things that we found was that it is what abusers [do], they will use the family pet, the people that you love, they’ll use them as weapons against you. So this is all based on research. I promise you it’s not just us being mean to the dog for the sake of it.”

Emmerdale airs weeknights on ITV1 and ITVX at 7.30pm