Victory: Foie Gras Will Not Be Sold In Fortnum & Mason Dubai Store

For Immediate Release:

17 February 2014

Contact:

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

Dubai – Only weeks before the opening of what will be the first overseas department store in its 300-year history, Fortnum & Mason has scrapped plans to sell foie gras at its new Dubai outlet. The move comes a few days after the release of a new People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) advertisement which features Sir Roger Moore calling for a boycott of the new Dubai store over Fortnum’s sale of the vile food product. The ad, in Arabic, has attracted widespread media attention in the United Arab Emirates.

A PETA UK undercover investigation into the farms in France from which Fortnum’s distributor obtains foie gras revealed that the product is not halal. It most definitely does not meet the requirements of Islamic law which clearly state that animals must not be under stress or in discomfort before slaughter and that they must not be diseased, mutilated or deformed. During foie gras production, huge amounts of grain and fat are pumped into the stomachs of geese through metal pipes that are rammed down their throats several times a day. Their distended livers – which can swell to up to 10 times their normal size – press against their lungs, causing them to pant constantly. As well as Sir Roger, Ralph Fiennes, Dame Vera Lynn, Ricky Gervais and MP Zac Goldsmith are among the many high-profile people who have called on the store to end its sale of this “torture in a tin”. Veterinarians and avian experts agree – there is no humane way to produce foie gras.

Fortnum’s CEO, Ewan Venters, recently described the vast new three-storey outlet in the shadow of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa – the world’s tallest skyscraper – as “a momentous event in the history of Fortnum’s”. “Dubai is the second most important retail centre in the world after London”, he told a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates.

“Fortnum & Mason’s decision not to sell foie gras in Dubai represents a significant step in getting this ‘torture in a tin’ out of all its stores”, Sir Roger says. “The company is tacitly acknowledging that this vile victual has no place in its future plans, and the next logical step would be for Fortnum to make this a companywide policy.”

You can view Sir Roger’s PETA ad here. For more information and to view the video footage, please click here or visit PETA.org.uk.

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