RTÉ HAS SAID the use of sheep in a mission on a recent episode of The Traitors Ireland was “carefully considered” after the segment received criticism on Radio 1’s Liveline.

Sunday night’s episode of The Traitors saw players enter a sheep pen and try to identify a sheep based on a description provided by fellow players outside the pen.

Later in the same mission, three players contested for a shield to protect them from murder.

A shield was strapped to a sheep and the player to successfully remove the shield from the sheep was protected from murder.

One player remarked during the episode that there was “confusion” when the sheep didn’t leave the field once the gate was opened.

“The sheep was not moving in any way, shape or form,” added another player.

“So it needed to be beckoned from the pen.”

Another player said he thought the sheep was going to “run into” one of the contestants at one point during the mission.

The sheep that players had to identify between for Sunday's mission RTÉ RTÉ

On this afternoon’s Liveline on RTÉ Radio one, a caller voiced concern that “sheep were used as part of the entertainment”.

“There were guys running around, shouting and screaming, there’s cameras, there’s all this stuff going on, and these sheep are in the middle of that,” she added.

“They’re just being used for fun, it was really sad, and it’s like there was no concern for the animal’s experience and their welfare.”

The caller added that this “sends the message that it doesn’t matter how animals are treated”.

She also criticised the section of the mission that saw a shield strapped to an ewe.

“Sheep are herd animals, so this this poor creature was isolated, cornered, and had guys running at it.

“It needed to get back to the to the flock, because that’s what herd animals need to do to feel safe, so it was absolutely afraid.”

The caller also claimed that the sheep appeared to be in “poor condition” and that “loads of them had dung all around their tails”.

In a statement read out on the programme, RTÉ and production company Kite Entertainment rejected these claims and said that the “welfare of the sheep involved was taken very seriously”.

“The use of sheep in this challenge was carefully considered by Kite Entertainment, with appropriate measures put in place to ensure their welfare and minimise any potential distress,” added the statement.

RTÉ said the mission took place on a working farm and that the animals were “handled by experienced personnel and the production followed relevant animal welfare requirements and guidance during filming”.

Host Siobhán McSweeney on a bale of hale before a red tractor ahead of Sunday's mission RTÉ RTÉ

Liveline host Kieran Cuddihy remarked that he wasn’t “really riled by it” but the caller claimed that the segment put the sheep under “additional stress” and that it was “unnecessary”.

She added that the sheep holding the shield was “isolated, cornered, and guys coming at it”.

However, Cuddihy said he “didn’t think the sheep looked too bothered by it, most of the time they were just grazing”.