Giant ‘Goose’ Gatecrashes Fortnum & Mason’s Diamond Jubilee Street Party
A giant “goose” led a protest against Fortnum & Mason at the store’s street party celebration marking The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee today. PETA members – making goose sounds and holding signs – added to the festivities. They were pointing out that despite being provided with evidence that ducks and geese used in foie gras production are grotesquely abused, Fortnum & Mason refuses to stop selling the product.
Birds raised for foie gras are force-fed up to 2 kilograms of grain and fat every day via a pipe inserted down their throats. That’s the equivalent of forcing a human to eat 20 kilograms of pasta per day and cause the birds’ livers to swell to as much as 10 times their normal size, resulting in a disease known as hepatic steatosis.
Foie gras production has been banned in more than a dozen countries, including the UK. The Brit Awards, Wimbledon, and the Royal Shakespeare Company have all recently pledged not to serve or sell foie gras, and Prince Charles refuses to allow it on Royal menus. Almost every major store in the UK – including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols – has dropped foie gras.
“Until Fortnum & Mason joins the rest of the civilised world and stops selling foie gras, PETA encourages shoppers to take their business elsewhere and patronise stores that refuse to profit from what can only be described as animal torture”, says PETA’s Abi Izzard.
