Author faces Twitter backlash for eating the bunny that ate her parsley

Award-winning author Jeanette Winterson has come under fire for killing, skinning and eating a rabbit that got into her garden and ate her plants - and then posting the pics on Twitter.

An award-winning author has come under fire on Twitter after tweeting a picture of a half-skinned rabbit that she had caught and killed in her garden.

Jeanette Winterson, best known for her best-selling book, 'Oranges are not the Only Fruit', posted the below photo of the partially-skinned rabbit on her kitchen counter captioned: "Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit."

Warning: the image is a bit gruesome

Jeanette also posted a picture of her making a frankly delicious-sounding rabbit stew made with cider, rosemary and thyme.

She praised the meal for its lack of waste, packaging, and processing and for its lack of food miles. She also fed some of the innards to her pet cat.

While Jeanette has said that she killed the rabbit humanely after catching it in a cage, she has faced a lot of criticism from her 32,700 Twitter followers for her cavalier attitude to the deceased bunny.

However, the author also had her supporters, with many praising her practical resourcefulness.

The UK and Ireland have a high rabbit population and they can cause serious damage to property and gardens. Rabbits are not protected under Irish law and, although adorable, are regularly considered pests.

So are rabbits fair game? Or did Jeanette go too far?