Scottish election candidate slams Gordon Ramsay over ‘deeply disturbing’ seabird hunt footage

A Scottish parliament candidate has criticised celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay for participating in “one of the most shameful activities in Scotland.”

Robert Pownall, standing in the Edinburgh Central seat, has called on Ramsay to “do the right thing”. This is after footage resurfaced from an episode of Ramsay’s show, The F Word. In it, he travels to the Isle of Lewis to cook and eat young gannet chicks – known as “guga”.

In the segment, Ramsay is seen recoiling from the bird’s carcass. He describes the smell as “worse than rotten eggs” and says it “looks like something out of an Alien film.”

Pownall said the footage was “deeply disturbing and disrespectful.”

The criticism comes as Pownall launches his bid for Scottish parliament. He’s campaigning as a giant gannet, demanding the removal of the legal exemption that allows the guga hunt to continue.

Each year, a group of hunters travels to the uninhabited island of Sula Sgeir. They take gannet chicks from their nests using poles and nooses before killing them with blows to the head. They take the birds, who aren’t yet old enough to fly, back to the Isle of Lewis where they sell and consume them as a local delicacy.

The guga hunt is Scotland’s last remaining legal seabird hunt. It’s legal due to a special exemption in the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Gordon Ramsay accused of ‘celebrating cruel activity’

Speaking on 27 April, independent candidate Pownall said:

Gordon Ramsay travelled hundreds of miles to take part in the killing of defenceless seabird chicks and turned it into entertainment. That is shameful.

This cruel activity should be challenged, not celebrated.

The comments come amid growing concern over the status of gannets and other seabirds.

Sula Sgeir, the island where the hunt takes place, is the only Special Protection Area for Gannets in Scotland to have shrunk while others grow. That’s according to documents which Pownall’s organisation Protect the Wild obtained. Pownall says this shows the hunt is undermining the colony’s ability to recover.

Gannets have also been hit hard by avian flu, with populations declining significantly in recent years. Pownall added:

Gannets are already under extreme pressure from disease, climate change and industrial fishing. They cannot afford another threat – least of all one driven by human greed.

This practice is not about survival, necessity, or nourishing communities. It is about killing wild animals for tradition and taste. And that is simply not okay.

The candidate has now issued an open letter to Gordon Ramsay, accusing him of turning the hunt into a “spectacle” and calling on him to now publicly oppose the practice.

Pownall is aiming to bring national attention to the issue ahead of the 2026 Scottish Parliament election, and is calling on all parties and the future government to commit to ending the guga hunt.

Featured image via the Canary