Urge Fortnum & Mason to Drop Cruel Foie Gras

Following talks with PETA in 2008, Fortnum & Mason stated that it would no longer sell duck foie gras. I am sorry to tell you that Fortnum & Mason continues to sell goose foie gras in its store and serve duck foie gras in its restaurants.

All major supermarkets in the UK have refused to stock foie gras, and celebrities such as Sir Roger Moore and Kate Winslet have spoken out against the vile product. Despite numerous attempts to contact Fortnum & Mason this year, the retailer refuses to respond to our requests to meet and discuss ending the sale of this "delicacy of despair". Having previously persuaded both Selfridges and Harvey Nichols to drop foie gras, Moore is joining forces with PETA once more and has now turned his attention to Fortnum and Mason, starting by firing off a letter to the retailer.

Deprived of everything that is natural to them, ducks and geese who are used in foie gras production suffer from frustration and stress. They are crammed into tiny pens or individual cages fouled with faeces and blood and often develop skeletal disorders and respiratory problems as a result. Pipes are shoved down their throats several times a day to force approximately two kilograms of grain, maize and fat into their stomachs. In human terms, that is the equivalent of roughly 20 kilograms of pasta.

The pipes sometimes puncture the birds' throats, causing them unbearable pain and making it impossible to drink. Pumps used to force food into the birds' stomachs can cause severe tissue damage and internal bleeding. This painful overfeeding process can even cause the birds' internal organs to rupture. Those who survive the forced-feedings suffer intensely as their livers swell to up to 10 times their normal size. After several weeks of this torture, the birds are hung upside down and slaughtered, and their livers are sold as foie gras.

You Can Help

Join compassionate people around the world in speaking out against the sale of this product. Please contact Fortnum & Mason and urge the company to immediately stop selling and serving foie gras.

http://action.peta.org.uk/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=5&ea.campaign.id=8725

Sir Roger Moore's Latest Film

Sir Roger Moore has teamed up with PETA once again to produce his latest film outing – an exposá of the cruel treatment suffered by ducks and geese in the foie gras industry.

Why is Sir Roger crying fowl over foie gras? Ducks and geese who are raised for foie gras are abused in ways so cruel and grotesque that its production is banned in the UK and many other countries. Foie gras (French for "fatty liver") is produced by ramming pipes down the throats of ducks and geese and pumping vast quantities of grain mash directly into their tiny stomachs until their livers become painfully diseased and enlarged. In some cases, the animals' stomachs split open, and the birds painfully bleed to death.

Those who survive this terrible treatment are later killed, and their diseased livers – swelled to up to 10 times their normal size – are sold as foie gras. Even though foie gras has been deemed too cruel for production in the UK, it is still legal to sell it here.

Investigations into foie gras farms in Europe and the US have all revealed the same thing: sick, dying or dead animals – some with serious injuries from having the force-feeding pipe rammed so violently down their throat that it ripped a hole in their neck. An Animal Protection and Rescue League investigation found that ducks on one foie gras farm had bloody beaks, and their wings were twisted together.

PETA is pushing forward in our campaign to end the misery of ducks and geese who suffer so greatly for this "torture in a tin". Although we are achieving victories, millions of birds are still crammed into tiny pens or cages, suffering the horror of being force-fed via a tube shoved down their gullets several times a day. To help us help them and other animals who are suffering, please make a donation today.

http://www.peta.org.uk/features/sir-roger-moore-narrates-new-video/