Fury over BBC plan to screen the slaughter of lambs and piglets

Their deaths will be screened as part of the series Kill It, Cook It, Eat It on BBC3.

On the show, a live studio audience watches the footage and gives an immediate reaction to the slaughter process.

The BBC said the series would "reconnect" the public with meat's journey from farm to fork.

The first series, shown earlier this year, featured the slaughter of adult farm animals.

But the National Farmers' Union expressed misgivings about the latest series. Spokesman Anthony Gibson said: "We don't have a problem with people being shown how their meat is produced.

"We think it is important that the public do know what's involved so they can eat meat with a clear conscience.

"We have more misgivings about this second series because it smacks of sensationalism to show baby animals being killed.

"It is a gratuitous play on the emotional heart strings of the public by showing them baby calves and baby lambs being slaughtered."

Vegetarian lobbying group Viva believes the footage is likely to sanitise the slaughter process which occurs in industrial abattoirs.

The group's campaigns chief Justin Kerswell said: "We think it's outrageous that the BBC are slaughtering baby animals on TV in an effort to bolster ratings.

"If the programme makers were really interested in showing the reality of slaughter they would film the conveyor belt of misery and pain inside just one of Britain's many industrial abattoirs."

The pressure group has made a formal complaint to the Corporation about the programme, which is being filmed this week and will be shown in November.

The BBC said: "As a nation of animal lovers, we may not want to acknowledge consciously that animals are taken from their mothers shortly after birth and put to the slaughterman's knife.

"But it does happen. The series will discuss the extreme emotions evoked by the slaughter of baby animals and will offer detailed explanations from all sides."