A desperate Victorian farming couple, who had made headlines for posting an advert to exchange a rare Woolworths Ooshie for irrigation water, have destroyed the collectible during a live interview with Today in a stand against online bullying.

Melissa Kate Portingale and Stephen Black had collected the first edition of the rarest Lion King collectable, the furry Simba. They initially tried to sell it, before deciding to exchange it for irrigation water for their farm.

But, angered by the hateful responses to their ad, the couple decided to destroy the Ooshie instead.

"For the people that bullied us and they want to buy this thing because they want it, this is what I say to them," Mr Black said, taking scissors to the Ooshie, cutting the collectible through the middle.

"It's done. You can't buy it."

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The couple had originally posted an ad to sell the Ooshie for $5000.

"People were just disgusted. The abuse started. Just hate and suicidal threats and yeah just some really awful things were said," Ms Portingale told Today.

The original advertisement Melissa Kate Portingale posted to Facebook selling the rare Woolworths Ooshie (Facebook)

"We decided to go down this path [selling the Ooshie] because we were really desperate for money to help the farm," she added.

After the backlash, the couple changed their tactic.

"We thought 'We'll trade it for water, just water,'" Mr Black explained. "We started explaining it's irrigation water, we've got a problem through the Murray Darling Basin with the water system. That's really more important to us than money at the moment."

"I really couldn't understand why that item [The Oosie] was worth so much money, but if somebody was so interested in that, maybe they would be interested in what we needed and why, and the message might get out there. I didn't have any idea it was going to be such a media frenzy," Mr Black said.

"I've had probably about 4,000 messages come through to my phone, with offers of say 20 cents upwards of $25,000. But in reality, we don't know which ones are real anymore and which ones aren't," Ms Portingale added.

Many people are forking over tens of thousands of dollars for Ooshies they think are rare, but are in fact just as likely to be found in the packets as any other collectible. (Woolworths)

While the couple did actually receive what they think was a legitimate water offer yesterday, the last three bids prior to that were all "bogus".

"It's very difficult, especially when you are just trying to do what you can to survive," Ms Portingale said. "It's really un-Australian to think that there are people out there who sit behind a computer and allow this sort of behaviour to happen."

"We are taking a stand against this online bullying, because I'm really passionate about this. It's just not on," Black said. "If we were on the edge like some of the farmers are that have taken their lives because it got too much, this stuff may have pushed one of us over the edge."

The only official rare Ooshie, according to Woolworths, is a furry Simba, with just 100 available. (Woolworths)

"So we are going to destroy it," Black said. "The world's got to stop this stuff because people get hurt."

"If this is the moment that I need to do something, I have to do it. I don't want to be standing here on national TV, but I do want the message to get out there because it's so important. There are so many people getting affected. The government needs to do something, not put it on the back-burner. It needs to happen. It's been going on for too long. People need to be able to run their business and survive."