Gordon Ramsay has left vegans and vegetarians fuming after he was filmed chasing lambs "to put them in the oven".
In the video posted on his TikTok, where he has 33.3 million followers, the chef is seen standing on the fencing of an enclosure housing the animals and rubbing his hands together while singing: “Yummy yum yum. I’m going to eat you!”
As the lambs are seen walking towards him, he asks: “Which one’s going in the oven first?”
He then exclaims: “You!” before jumping into the pen, sending the frightened flock scrambling to the far end as he adds: “Oven time!”
The clip has so far amassed over 9.3 million views and has been liked more than a million times.
He captioned the video: "The Lamb sauce was still not found in the making of this video..." — a reference to a 2006 meme, derived from a scene from his show Hell's Kitchen, in which he asked a contestant for lamb sauce.
One follower wrote: "Alright I think Gordon has finally lost it. Someone do something before it’s too late.”
Another added: “He is cruel! We all know he eats meat but to delight in seeing living creatures and having fun imagining them slaughtered is next level sick.”
While a third stated: “Those beautiful little babies, what people will do for views. It’s a sad world we live in.”
However, not every comment slammed the 55-year-old chef and restaurateur, with one user commenting, “It’s like people are just finding out now where meat comes from… like what?”
The clip has also sparked debate off social media.
This Morning's guest presenters Vernon Kay and Rochelle Humes defended Ramsay by arguing that he was just being honest about animals going to the slaughter.
Kay said: "That's Gordon Ramsay. That's the Gordon Ramsay we know, who will eat meat. He won't like us talking about him, I have no doubt.
“But, surely that's what happens when we eat meat. Animals are put to the slaughter. I think it's just the fact that, personally, that it's there.
"It's in front of him, it's graphic and it's made the vegan community so angry.”
The TikTok video is thought to have been filmed when he visited a farm in Wales for an upcoming episode of his National Geographic show, Uncharted, which he shared a clip of on his Instagram on Monday.
Tonight I'm in #Wales on #Uncharted and I'm really getting put to work ! See you at 8/7c on @NatGeoTV ! pic.twitter.com/iBfBUTuEmq
— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) August 1, 2022
The star has never hidden his contempt for meatless diets or vegans and vegetarians.
In 2021, he got into a row with Canadian influencer and animal rights activist Kadie Karen Diekmeyer - known as That Vegan Teacher on TikTok - over her criticism of his eating, cooking and serving meat.
Ramsay hit back with a video of himself in a TikTok duet listening to one of her songs and tucking into a large burger.
He also called her a “vegan doughnut” in the clip.
Back in 2013, when asked what the biggest lie he ever told was, he proudly replied: "To a table of vegetarians who had artichoke soup. I told them it was made with vegetable stock when it was chicken stock."
