Further Foie Gras Progress!

Barely a week goes by in which we don’t learn of another business throwing out foie gras, the cruel foodstuff which is made by force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers become diseased.

Compassionate PETA supporters are often behind these heartening successes against foie gras. There’s now such a stigma attached to this vile product that a single person speaking out against it can be enough to persuade companies that they’d be better off not selling it.

Here are some recent highlights:

• Award-winning Cheshire hotel Alderley Edge has just confirmed to us that it’s removing foie gras from its menus, now and forever, after hearing from a concerned customer and receiving a letter from PETA.
•   PETA’s celebrity campaigner, Meg Mathews, got foie gras removed from London restaurant XO, after having a word with the manager. “The manager was really polite and took everything I said on board”, she recalls. “Later on, I sent them some facts and photographs and the following day they told me they were taking it off the menu. That felt great. I hope this encourages other restaurants to follow suit.”
•   The BBC’s MasterChef has vowed never to feature the foodstuff because of its unethical production methods after hearing from PETA and other animal-protection groups. We’re still waiting, however, for shows such as the Great British Menu and Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me to follow suit.
•   Oxfordshire’s Oakman Inns also joined the ranks of foie gras–free retailers this month, with owner Peter Borg-Neal explaining that “the risk of cruelty is too high to be acceptable to me”.

In fact, that’s putting it mildly. In foie gras production, cruelty isn’t a risk – it’s a certainty. Birds have metal pipes shoved down their throats multiple times a day so that massive amounts of grain can be pumped into their stomachs. Video footage released earlier this month showed how intensely the birds suffer as they become exhausted and ill from the relentless force-feeding and poor living conditions.

Fortunately, the dwindling demand for foie gras in this country means that fewer ducks and geese are being tortured in this way for UK consumption. (Producing foie gras in Britain is thankfully illegal under animal-welfare laws.) We’d like to send a big thank-you to these businesses for ditching foie gras – and to the activists who put pressure on them to do the right thing.

If you see a restaurant or shop selling foie gras, please don’t be afraid to express your disappointment (politely). You can also join our campaign against one of the worst offenders when it comes to supporting foie gras cruelty – department store Fortnum & Mason: petauk.org/RoyalWarrants