West End Stars Call On Fortnum & Mason To ‘Bring The Final Curtain Down On Foie Gras’

For Immediate Release:
5 May 2011

Contact:
Mimi Bekhechi +44 (0)207 357 9229, ext 238; [email protected]

London – Holding a large banner and signs that resemble a stage curtain and read, “Fortnum & Mason: Bring the Final Curtain Down on Foie Gras”, West End stage stars Jenny Seagrove, Peter Egan (of last year’s hit The Secret of Sherlock Holmes) and Carley Stenson (now appearing in Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre), joined PETA to protest the sale of foie gras by Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly today.
 
“Foie gras production is a shockingly cruel process and has rightly been banned in the UK”, says longtime PETA supporter Jenny Seagrove, who recently appeared in the smash hit The Country Girl at the Apollo Theatre. “I was therefore appalled to find that Fortnum & Mason, a store that trades on its British Heritage, is refusing to stop selling it. I shall make a point of boycotting Fortnum & Mason as a West End eaterie and encourage my colleagues to do the same.”

In foie gras production, up to 2 kilograms of grain and fat are pumped through pipes into the stomachs of caged or penned young ducks and geese each day. In human terms, that would be the equivalent of being forced to eat up to 20 kilograms of pasta. Investigations of foie gras farms have documented sick, dead and dying birds, some with holes in their necks from pipe injuries.

Other stage actors who have lent their support to PETA’s campaign include legendary stage actor Ruthie Henshall and Danielle Lineker who recently starred in Calendar Girls. Famous supporters Sir Roger Moore, Steven Berkoff and the Duchess of Hamilton have also participated in the campaign.

Henshall said, “I am truly shocked that, knowing the cruelty involved, anyone would go on selling this product that is so rightly illegal to produce here in the UK. Please, Fortnum & Mason, do the right thing”. Lineker told PETA, “I would never dream of eating foie gras. It is shameful to pay for an overseas supplier to force-feed birds until their livers become grossly enlarged and then import the product into the UK to sell. Until Fortnum & Mason pledges to bring down the final curtain on its sale of foie gras, I shall be shopping elsewhere and encouraging others to do the same”.