Devon resident and celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has angered animal rights activists by admitting his son shoots squirrels to eat.
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall told ITV panel show Loose Women earlier this week that his 15-year-old son Oscar often shot grey squirrels in the garden of their Devon home.
He said: "We eat squirrel at home and we eat rabbit, and I prefer squirrel.
"I recently planted an orchard and a lot of nut trees. I have a 15-year-old son with an air rifle and that is the explanation as to why we eat quite a lot of squirrel."
He added: "It's very sustainable meat, you've killed it yourself, you know where it comes from. If we're going to eat meat at all – and that's a big debate in itself – let's not shy away from wild meat that's been killed in a humane way and is 100 per cent natural."
But the TV chef's liking for squirrel hasn't gone down with animal rights campaigners the League Against Cruel Sports.
The League's Michael Stephenson said that parents "have a responsibility to teach kids to respect wildlife rather than be shooting it".
He added: "But this is also very dangerous, the number of incidents of animals being killed or wounded by air rifles is on the increase. Something needs to be done."
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals added: "One can only pity the son whose father encourages him to see wildlife not as fascinating and worth preserving but as living targets who exist only to satisfy his stomach.
"We hope he will rebel against this archaic instruction and learn who animals are as individuals, with thoughts, feelings and interests."
Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall said: "I think it's okay to eat squirrel.
"I'm talking about grey squirrels, not our native red squirrels, which are under a lot of threat and there's not much meat on them anyway.
"Grey squirrel is an introduced species, they are what we term an agricultural pest."
There are less than 15,000 red squirrels left in Britain, but more than 2.5 million grey squirrels, introduced from the US in the 1870s.
