Ricky Gervais has slammed people who use their religion as an excuse for animal cruelty

Taking to his Twitter account on Tuesday (03.04.18) night, he said: "Animal cruelty is wrong. "But, it's a tradition", doesn't make it right, "It's part of my religion" doesn't make it right, "It's my livelihood" doesn't make it right, and "people are more important" doesn't make it right either. You know why? Because it's just wrong. [sic]"

Ricky regularly uses his social networking sites to express his love for animals and recently admitted that he's going to leave his entire fortune to animal charities just before he dies.

He wrote on Twitter: "I was going to give my fortune to animal charities after I die. But I've decided to do it just before I die so I get to see all the whining."

This won't be the first time the funnyman - who was crowned Person of the Year by PETA for his work on stomping out animal abuse - has given something to an animal charity as just two years ago he donated a signed acoustic guitar to help raise funds for Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary in Ontario, Canada.

And, prior to that, in 2013 he bought a cake shaped like a moonbear for $1,000 (£770) to raise funds for Animal Asia, a Hong Kong-based charity that seeks to end cruelty.

As well as his charitable efforts, Ricky has also become the voice of the animals and has previously spoken out against fox hunting and bullfighting.

He also wrote a letter to then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urging him to stop the use of black bear fur as caps for the Foot Guards.

However, Ricky has proved he has a heart for humans too as he previously gave a proportion of $45,000 donation- $25,000 of which came from the proceeds raised from his recent show at New York City's Madison Square Garden - to cancer sufferers.

The remainder went to various animals charities.