This Morning fans fumed as squirrel was cooked and eaten live on TV today.
Holly Willoughby was left gagging as Phillip Schofield tried the squirrel risotto and buttermilk fried squirrel, cooked by Phil Vickery, as the group discussed how Exmoor Squirrel Project had encouraged people to eat grey squirrels to help save the native red squirrel.
Those watching the show from home couldn't believe that they had actually cooked and were eating squirrels, with horror spread over Holly's face as chef Phil Vickery came over with the dishes.
Whilst some of the TV stars tried the dishes, Holly was not keen and refused to take a bite.
She said: "No thank you," as she was offered the food before she later added: "It's so weird, the thought of it, I can already feel it in my throat... makes me feel a bit" and held her hand against her mouth as if she was going to throw up.
"I understand this is a highly-emotive subject and if you are a vegetarian or vegan, then this is horrific to imagine! Phil said, before adding: "I don't have a problem with taste, texture or anything - I wouldn't know what it was!"
Whilst they ate Holly held her notes against her mouth, as she asked them to end the segment.
Fans rushed to social media to slam the segment. "Eating f***ing squirrel #JeremyVine yesterday and today #ThisMorning WTAF is wrong with," one vented their frustration with the segments as they wrote on Twitter.
"#ThisMorning no I couldn’t eat squirrel! I feed them where I live and I like them so I couldn’t!" a second added, whilst a third shared: "You have no idea if it’s organic or not! You can’t say it’s organic squirrel when you have no idea what it’s been eating! For all you know it could have eaten food with a whole host of fertilisers or pesticides etc #ThisMorning @thismorning."
Viewers insisted they would never eat it themselves.
"I’ll pass on Phil Vickery’s “humanely dispatched” squirrel risotto, thanks #ThisMorning," one wrote, whilst another asked: "So why are you so against killing all the cats in the covid part , but OK with eating squirrels in your next bit #thismorning."
One furious fan added: "I LOVE Squirrels but not to eat, and i dont agree with culling grey squirrels in favour of red ones, i got tonnes of grey squirrels in my garden, they are pure joy, they are funny AND pigeons are scared of them too lol, i won't ever eat a squirrel!"
