"Not in Britain, though. Moments after I posted my Tweet, a man called Ryan Paisey asked: 'How does she smell?' Adam Farrow said the news was 'kinda funny'. Phil May wanted to know if it was James May's fault, and Tom Green said simply: 'Good'. All that in less than what Twitter calls zero seconds.

"Five minutes has now elapsed, and still it's a non-stop tirade of abuse. Which confirms my theory."

Clarkson, 52, who is known for his outspoken comments, including suggesting that public sector workers on strike should be shot in front of their families, said the comments about his beloved black labrador Whoopi showed to him that "Britain is a nation of 62 million complete and utter bastards".

"We are the country that invented the concentration camp, and international slavery. Hanging, drawing, quartering: that was us too. And who was it that sent the White Russians home to be slaughtered by Stalin? Yup. Us," he wrote.

Abusive tweets have been in the spotlight recently after a 17-year-old boy was arrested for comments he directed at British diver Tom Daley following his performance in the men's synchronised 10m platform final at the Olympics.