Bafta Removes Foie Gras From Menus Following PETA Appeal

For Immediate Release:
22 April 2010

Contact
Martin Mallon 0207 357 9229, ext 229; [email protected]

London – Responding to a letter explaining how ducks and geese are force-fed via a pipe thrust down their throats to produce foie gras, the British Academy of Film and Television Acting (BAFTA) has assured PETA that the Academy will no longer serve the “fatty liver” at its restaurant, 195 Piccadilly, or at any of its events.

“Foie gras is produced in such a barbarous manner that the United Kingdom has outlawed the practice”, says PETA’s Poorva Joshipura. “We thank the Academy for recognising that what is too cruel to create is also too cruel to serve.”

In its letter to BAFTA, PETA explained that ducks and geese are force-fed several times a day for weeks until their livers expand to up to 10 times their normal size. Investigations at foie gras farms throughout the United States and Europe have documented sick, dead and dying birds, some with holes in their necks from pipe injuries. One investigation found that ducks with bloody beaks and twisted wings were jammed into small wire cages. At another farm, birds were dangling from wires, with blood from their neck wounds spilling onto the birds beneath them. At one French farm, ducks are kept in the dark in rows of individual metal cages barely any larger than the birds’ bodies, preventing them from ever being able to stretch a wing or take a single step in any direction. The birds become severely depressed and sit shaking, no longer grooming themselves, out of fear, pain and the distension of their organs.

Foie gras production is banned in the United Kingdom and more than a dozen other countries, including Germany, Israel and Switzerland. The Brit Awards pulled foie gras from this year’s menu after complaints from both PETA and singer Leona Lewis, and Prince Charles has banned it from menus at Royal residences. Retailers such as Waitrose, Selfridges, and Sainsbury’s refuse to sell foie gras. Celebrities who have supported PETA in the campaign to give foie gras the boot include the late Sir John Gielgud, Formula One heir Tamara Ecclestone, and both Sir Roger Moore and BAFTA-winner Kate Winslet have narrated PETA videos showing the cruelty inherent in foie gras production.

For more information about foie gras please visit PETA.org.uk.