Gordon Ramsay under fire for killing rabbit on TV
LONDON - Animal rights groups and viewers have attacked celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for showing a rabbit having its neck broken on his Channel 4 show 'The F Word'.
Ramsay has been criticised for his decision to show footage of himself and his eight-year-old son using ferrets to hunt for rabbits and for screening one of the ferret owners killing the rabbit.
Last week, Ramsay claimed that his son had accidentally pulled off a live rabbit's head during the same expedition, but this was not featured in the programme broadcast on Tuesday night.
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Animal rights organisations, including Viva, have reacted angrily, claiming that it was barbaric and that Ramsay only included the footage to cause controversy and boost his own profile.
RSPCA officers have received calls from viewers expressing their concern about the episode, but the organisation said that no laws had been broken.
A spokesperson for Channel 4 said: "As part of the current series of Gordon Ramsay's 'F Word', Gordon features in a regular strand in which he sources and cooks new or unusual ingredients. Within this strand, he explored the viability of finding, hunting and eating wild rabbit, historically a widely-consumed food but no longer part of the mainstream diet.
"The location of the shoot was private land where rabbits cause extensive damage. In this context, Department for the Environment guidelines were being followed and control measures, including ferreting, were legal and in place."
The complaints follow similar protests about another Channel 4 show in which rival chef Jamie Oliver was shown slitting a lamb's throat.
'F Word': complaints about killing of rabbit
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Comments
Jeremy Lee - 22/05/2008
GROW UP
CF - 22/05/2008
For god's sake. They cooked the rabbits after they snapped their necks - is that offensive too? You have to kill animals to eat meat. Any chef who ever stuffed a chicken is handling a carcass, the same as the rabbit with the broken neck. What stupidly squeamish complaints.
Gordon Macmillan - 22/05/2008
Yes completely if you eat it you shouldn't get all squeamish about about the killing and I don't even eat meat.
Jeremy Lee - 22/05/2008
I agre with Gordon and I think that if you do eat meat you have a moral responsibiity to be aware of how it lived and died. Idiots
David Pearce - 22/05/2008
It made me hungry
Darren Davidson - 22/05/2008
ANGRY!
Keith Geddes - 22/05/2008
I dont want to see any animal killed on tv. Horses fall in races and are `put down`.. I`d rather see a jockey not get up. Jockeys have a choice. Do we need to see animals killed to prove where the meat comes from? I dont think so. Of course animal rights will have a go..
Jeremy Lee - 23/05/2008
Not the same point at all - race horses aren't a food stuff
Alex Donohue - 23/05/2008
They are in France!
Jeremy Lee - 27/05/2008
That's true I suppose although I'm pretty sure that race horses aren't bred for that purpose. And another interesting fact is that Bryan Habana could DEFINITELY out-run a snail. FACT
Jeremy Lee - 27/05/2008
and the reason that comment is apposite is because the French also eat snails as well as horses...... I trod on a snail the other week but to avoid unnecessary distress I didn't film it