Sexy PETA Girls Painted Like St George’S Cross Blast Fortnum & Mason For Importing Foie Gras

For Immediate Release:
21 April 2011

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

London – Today, bodypainted to resemble St George’s Cross and holding a sign that reads, “Fortnum & Mason: Stop Importing Cruelty. Drop Foie Gras”, five nearly naked PETA supporters – including former Playboy model Victoria Eisermann – converged outside Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, just in time for St George’s Day. The lovely ladies’ point? That while Fortnum & Mason attempts to appear patriotic with an “all things English” event, the store refuses to stop selling foie gras – the enlarged livers of force-fed ducks and geese – which is imported from France because it is illegal to produce in the UK.

“Nothing could be less patriotic in a country known for its compassion for animals than selling a product made from the diseased bodies of abused birds”, says PETA special projects coordinator Abi Izzard. “High tea, cricket and warm pints? Yes. Foie gras? Absolutely not!”

To produce foie gras, young ducks and geese are crammed into tiny cages or pens, and up to 2 kilograms of grain and fat are pumped through pipes into the birds’ stomachs each day. In human terms, that would be the equivalent of being forced to eat roughly 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. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has removed foie gras from its restaurant and all its events, and the Brit Awards has also banned it. Prince Charles has banned foie gras from all menus at Royal residences, and iconic department stores Harvey Nichols and Selfridges no longer stock or serve foie gras.