Richard Madeley seemed to enjoy sampling squirrel meat live on Good Morning Britain.
Sat beside co-host Kate Garraway, the 67 year old TV veteran had just opened the floor to a debate over whether the food industry should introduce the tree-jumping rodents – the Grey species specifically – for more regular human consumption on Monday's show, 28 August.
The rodents are being mass culled unfolds across the UK in order to protect our native and endangered Red variety.
An American member of PETA accused cullers of "quite literally blasting the brains out of these animals or trapping them and then bludgeoning them to death", before Richard argued how a strong sense of squirrel sentimentality may be clouding the real problem of an invasive species.
"More and more we're recognising that animals aren't actually burgers or sausages, they're living beings that deserve to live," she replied. "They don't need to be culled and I think sometimes hunters, they use that rhetoric just to disguise the fact that they actually like killing these animals.
"There is a humane solution to every perceived problem. In this instance, there's vaccinations for red squirrels, there's actually oral contraceptives, there's habitat modification…"
Having shaken his head throughout this monologue, Welsh farmer Gareth Wynn Jones claimed: "That is the biggest joke I've ever heard. Look, we've gotta protect our Red squirrels, they're beautiful. They're in danger.
"Don't mislead people into saying that we're just blasting them out of the trees – they're being caught as well, in traps. We have to take them out of that equation if we wanna protect. They're carrying the pox [virus], the Greys, that are killing the Reds. These Greys are killing a lot of little birds, songbirds, OK? There are chewing saplings in forestry…"
Making his mark on this conundrum, Richard produced a squirrel meatball and happily tucked in.
"Um… it tastes not unlike a chicken burger actually," he announced.
As you'd expect, the world of Twitter lit up in response to the presenter's odd snack, with two GMB fans writing: "Richard Madeley eating a squirrel burger having pushed off all the salad scores quite highly on the Partridge-o-meter" and "Richard Madeley is eating squirrels on live TV #Rodent #GoodMorningSquirrels".
Comparisons to Steven Coogan's comedy character Alan Partridge are nothing new to Richard.
Three months ago, Match of the Day host Gary Lineker was grilled on GMB over his controversial suspension from the BBC, and later spoke of the experience on Chris Moyles' Radio X programme.
Mentioning the "interesting little interview with Mr Madeley", Gary, 62, was told that it was a "joy to watch" by Chris, 49.
"You've gone on ITV to talk about your new show [Sitting on a Fortune] on ITV and you get a grilling," pointed out the latter, which saw the former Barcelona striker laugh back: "Well you know… Richard 'Partridge' Madeley, we know what you're like… it was fine".
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