Dead Geese’ Delivered To Fortnum & Mason

For Immediate Release:

20 June 2013

Contact:

Ben Williamson +44 (0) 20 7837 6327, ext 229; [email protected]

Photos of the event are available here, here, and here. Others are available from Camera Press among others.

London – Holding the corpses of “dead geese” and signs that read, “Force-Fed & Massacred for Foie Gras”, PETA supporters gathered outside Fortnum & Mason this morning. Their point? That foie gras is the product of the torture of very sick birds.

The protest follows recently released undercover video footage that exposes the abuse of animals on foie gras farms that supply Fortnum & Mason’s distributor. The video, narrated by Sir Roger Moore, is available to view here.

“Fortnum & Mason’s customers have a right to know the truth about the cruelty that goes into making every slither of this ‘torture in a tin'”, says PETA Senior Programme Manager Yvonne Taylor. “The store’s managing director, Ewan Venters, should hang his head in shame for allowing this barbaric product to remain on the store’s shelves and menus.”

Birds raised for foie gras are force-fed huge amounts of grain three or four times every day via a metal pipe that is rammed down their throats. Their livers swell to up to 10 times their normal size, resulting in a disease known as “hepatic steatosis”. Foie gras production is banned in the UK and 16 other countries, which is why Fortnum & Mason shamefully pays French farmers to force-feed geese on its behalf before importing the diseased livers to the UK to sell in its Piccadilly store.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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