PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has sent a letter to TV presenter and farmer Jeremy Clarkson, urging him to "stop telling porky pies about how bacon, ham, and sausages are really made".

The appeal came following the launch of PETA’s new animated short film, produced in collaboration with London-based advertising agency Grey, which illustrates the often-hidden truth behind the production of pork products such as bacon, ham, and sausages.

The animated film starts in a seemingly innocuous way, with a father having breakfast with his daughters.

Oxford Mail: PETA's short film centres on a pig farmerPETA's short film centres on a pig farmer (Image: PETA)

However, after being asked about his job as a pig farmer, the storyline takes a "sinister turn", showing the "horrifying truth" of the trade.

Jeremy Clarkson owns Diddly Squat Farm and farm shop, which are based near Chipping Norton.

The group has also offered to provide Mr Clarkson with pig-themed plates showcasing scenes from the film.

PETA has suggested these plates could be displayed at Clarkson's Diddly Squat Farm Shop "to serve as a further reminder of the suffering behind each bacon buttie or pork sausage roll".

Oxford Mail: PETA say the film is a humorous but dark look into the pork production industryPETA say the film is a humorous but dark look into the pork production industry (Image: PETA)

The vice president of programmes at PETA, Elisa Allen, said: "It’s time for Jeremy Clarkson, and everyone else who is not yet vegan, to admit that the bacon on his plate was once a thinking, feeling being who desperately wanted to live."

The PETA letter received by Mr Clarkson contains a bleak description of the farming industry.

It reads: “The reality is that when it comes to raising and slaughtering animals on an industrial scale – 10 million pigs a year are farmed and killed for their flesh in the UK alone – any measure of kindness, respect, or decency goes out the window."

The letter concludes by saying: “It’s time to stop peddling industry lies and admit that the notion of a ‘happy’ pig farm is utter hogwash.”

PETA says current practices in the UK include confining thousands of pigs into cramped concrete pens, thereby denying them access to sunlight or fresh air.

Farmers, according to PETA, routinely resort to tail amputation and tooth grinding, "usually without administering any painkillers".

This is a reaction to aggressive actions by the pigs, like tail and ear biting, which PETA says are brought on by frustration and stress from their living conditions.

It says that the "gentle" animals my be "hoisted upside down by their back legs while their throats are cut, sometimes without effective stunning".

PETA, which strongly opposes speciesism and promotes the belief that "animals are not ours to eat," offers a free vegan starter kit as a step towards change.