PETA’S Sexy Santas Urge Fortnum & Mason To Get Into The Holiday Spirit And Dump Foie Gras

For Immediate Release:
22 December 2010


Contact:
Sandra Smiley 0207 357 9229, ext 229; [email protected]


London – Wearing skimpy red dresses, stiletto heels and jaunty hats, PETA’s Sexy Santa models handed out gift sacks to holiday shoppers outside Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly on Wednesday. The sacks, which were custom made for PETA’s campaign, feature an image of a dead goose – along with the words “Fortnum & Mason’s Idea of Wringing in the Holidays. Foie Gras Is Torture in a Tin” – and when a shopper holds one of the bags by the handle, it appears as if he or she is wringing the bird’s neck. The bags were stuffed with goodies, including a copy of PETA’s video exposé of the foie gras industry narrated by Sir Roger Moore. Upmarket retailers Harvey Nichols and Selfridges have stopped selling foie gras following pressure from PETA, and now the group is calling on Fortnum & Mason to follow suit.


“Fortnum & Mason executives are aware of the intense suffering that ducks and geese endure in order to produce foie gras, yet the company continues to sell this cruel food”, says PETA special projects coordinator Abi Izzard. “We’re asking shoppers to steer clear of Fortnum & Mason until the company rids its shelves of the diseased livers of tortured birds.”


In foie gras production, 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 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 crammed into small wire cages. Birds used in foie gras production often become severely depressed and sit shaking, as they experience fear, pain and the distension of their organs.


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