An Italian woman who shares her name with a goat from the children’s television series Peppa Pig is reportedly demanding €100,000 in compensation from the programme’s British producers, claiming she has been “teased and made an object of scorn” since the character was introduced.

Gabriella Capra, 40, has requested damages from the London-based animation studio Astley Baker Davies after friends and colleagues made fun of her animal namesake, said the Italian national foundation of consumers (FNC).

In Italian, capra means goat. In an episode broadcast in Britain in 2012, Peppa Pig and family are introduced to Gabriella Goat, who shows Peppa around her village in Italy while occasionally bleating.

In Italy – where the television series, dubbed into the local language, is wildly popular – the character appears as Gabriella Capra, daughter of the pigs’ holiday home manager and niece of the local pizza maker, Uncle Goat.

In a statement quoted in the Italian media, the FNC said that “ever since this episode of the cartoon came out”, the real Gabriella Capra had suffered taunts from her peers. She had subsequently decided to protect her name by asking for compensation, it added, but would donate any money awarded to charity.

“Through us, therefore, our member has submitted a request of €100,000 in damages to the English company, and any resulting sum will be entirely donated to voluntary associations looking after abandoned children,” the statement said.

No further details concerning the case were immediately available.