Gordon Ramsay and Gino D’Acampo slammed by animal lovers as they get tiny donkey to lug them in a cart

GORDON Ramsay, Gino D'Acampo and Fred Sirieix have been slammed by animal lovers as they get a tiny donkey to lug them in a cart.

The foodie trio were seen being pulled by the donkey in cart while filming Gordon, Gino and Fred: Christmas Road Trip, when their van supposedly broke down in Morocco.

However, the scene has drawn the ire of of animal rights campaigners, as they suggest the donkey struggled to pull such a huge weight.

Audrey Gaffney - a writer at the Ethical Bucket List, a website that promotes ethical travelling options and destinations - complained directly to ITV, according to .

She told them: "It is clearly unacceptable for a small animal like this to pull four adult men on a cart. It's quite disconcerting that no one involved questioned this.

"Again ITV have failed to undertake adequate research of this extremely important issues, and, as is usually the case, the animal will suffer.

"This is unacceptable from the UK's leading commercial broadcaster."

Meanwhile, animal rights campaigner and TV presenter Jan Leeming called the trio "idiots".

This isn't the first time Gino has been in trouble over the treatment of animals on an ITV show.

Gino was charged with animal cruelty alongside Hollyoaks actor Stuart Manning after they killed a rat and cooked it on I'm A Celebrity.

Those charges were dropped after ITV admitted that production staff gave them permission to take the rat's life.

A Sydney court fined ITV for $3000, which was the equivalent of £1,660 at the time, and ordered to pay $2,500  - equivalent of £1,390 - in costs.

ITV were also slammed when Martin Clumes climbed up an elephant's trunk in My Travels and Other Animals.

Then were criticised again for Trevor McDonald's Indian Train Adventure, where they visited an elephant sanctuary with tourists climbing on top of them.