Chris Packham to Liz Truss: Don’t Betray Animals for Fur and Foie Gras

Today, PETA joined animal rights campaigners from FOUR PAWS UK and Humane Society International/UK at Downing Street to submit a 250,000-strong petition led by Chris Packham. Together, we’re calling on Liz Truss and her government to end the obscene double standard of allowing fur and foie gras imports to the UK whilst the production of both is banned here.

Humane Society International/UK

The action follows reports from a senior Conservative MP that the government intends to drop plans to ban these cruelly obtained products, as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Jacob Rees-Mogg is reportedly blocking the ban, citing the protection of “personal choice” as the reason. We cannot let this happen. Both fur and foie gras are derived from abuse so disturbing that it’s already illegal to produce them in the UK. This goes beyond personal choice – it’s about protecting the most vulnerable from a lifetime of suffering.

There is no place for fur and foie gras in a civilised society, and the UK public knows it. From Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason to Victoria Beckham and Burberry, more and more department stores, designers, and restaurants are refusing to sell this cruelty. The House of Lords has been foie gras–free for nearly a decade, and even King Charles III has banned it from being served at his royal residences. Seventy-nine per cent of the UK public supports a foie gras import ban, and 95% of the public reject fur.

The Government’s Obscene Double Standards

The government has long promised to close our borders to cruelly produced foie gras and fur as part of the now dropped Animals Abroad Bill.

This is unacceptable. The bans are welcomed by everyone in this country except the inherently selfish. Backtracking betrays the animals the bans were designed to protect and also the public, which has made its opposition to these products clear.

The government must fulfil its commitment to having and promoting the highest standards of animal welfare by closing our borders to cruelty.

What You Should Know About Foie Gras

To produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force-fed several times a day until their livers become diseased and swell to around 10 times their natural size.

Can you imagine being forced to eat 20 kilos of pasta each day? That’s the human equivalent of the nearly 2 kilos of food that’s typically forced down these birds’ throats every single day.

PETA exposés have revealed that the long metal feeding pipes leave some birds so badly injured that they have holes in their necks, broken beaks, and inflammation of the oesophagus.

Where Fur Comes From

Before their fur is imported and sold, foxes, rabbits, minks, and other animals spend their entire lives confined to filthy cages.

Many of them go mad from confinement and mutilate themselves, chewing on their own legs or tails. At the end of their short lives, they are poisoned, gassed, electrocuted, drowned, or even skinned alive, all for a product no one needs.