Bake Off: The Professionals criticised for featuring 'cruel' Puppy Yoga practice

Bake Off: The Professionals has come under criticism for featuring puppy yoga, after calls to ban the practice.

Liam Charles was joined by new co-host Ellie Taylor for the eighth series of the Great British Bake Off spin-off on Channel 4 and the first episode showed the contestants taking a puppy yoga class.

Read more: Bake Off: The Professionals 2023 – All you need to know

Contestants Nicoletta and Georgina, of the Meraki Baking Studio were shown enjoying puppy yoga, practising poses in a studio surrounded by fluffy white puppies.

One laughed: "Someone is biting my socks."

Watch: Puppy Yoga featured in Bake Off: The Professionals

This comes after MPs at a recent meeting of the environment, food and rural affairs committee (DEFRA) meeting ruled the use of puppies in yoga sessions was "cruelty" and advised organisers to "stop doing it".

Committee chair Robert Goodwill said: "It isn’t that we need to change the law, it’s already against the law to be cruel to animals, and I believe this is cruelty.

“These puppies are being exploited, there’s no evidence in the film that the animals were enjoying the contact with people.”

Peta’s vice president of programmes Elisa Allen told Yahoo UK: "Along with animal welfare concerns – like poor socialisation, lack of water, and being separated from their mothers too early – promoting the breeding of 'pedigree' dogs, who often endure severe physical problems later in life, is another gimmick to promote sales over rescue and goes against one of the fundamental principles of yoga: ahimsa, doing no harm.

"While hundreds of thousands of wonderful dogs sit in UK shelters longing for a home – some for years – greedy breeders churn out litter after litter of puppies for profit, knowing that some of those dogs will end up adding to the homeless-animal crisis when they are dumped in shelters after the novelty wears off.

"Peta urges yogis to stay away from a cheap ploy that uses sensitive animals as props and stick to downward dog with your rescued pup."

Yahoo UK has contacted Channel 4 for comment.

A recent ITV News investigation found puppies puppies as young as six-weeks-old were being denied access to water, sleep and worked for hours at a time in the sessions.

But event organisers claimed it was a good social activity for the puppies.

Yoga sessions where animals roam around the classroom and are able to rub against and climb on people while they pose have become increasingly popular in the last few years. It is believed the interaction with living creatures improves mindfulness and the pictures look appealing on social media.

Animals used in yoga classes include dogs, goats, rabbits, kittens, llamas, chickens and even lemurs at one class in New York.

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Puppy yoga has become the latest craze in London and the UK.

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