Chrissie Hynde, the lead singer of The Pretenders, has appealed to Managing Director Ewan Venters to stop Fortnum & Mason selling foie gras – a product so vile that it is illegal to produce in the UK.
Credit/Copyright: PETA UK
Hynde’s action comes after PETA showed her undercover video footage, narrated by legendary actor Sir Roger Moore, which exposed terrible abuse on foie gras farms supplying Fortnum & Mason – including at an abattoir, where birds had knives plunged into their throats without prior stunning, in contravention of both UK and French law.
“I’ll stand by you, Mr Venters, just as soon as you stop the sale of foie gras in your store”, says Hynde. “Until then, I’ll be avoiding Fortnum’s like the plague and will be encouraging my friends and family to do the same.”
During foie gras production, huge amounts of grain are pumped into the stomachs of geese through metal pipes, which 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. Veterinarians and avian experts agree: there is no humane way to produce foie gras. Animal-protection groups – including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Compassion in World Farming, Animal Defenders International, Animal Aid, Viva!, Four Paws, OneKind, Save Me and the International Veterinary Society – have all joined PETA in calling for Fortnum & Mason to stop selling foie gras.
Tens of thousands of PETA supporters have written to Fortnum & Mason urging it to stop selling the barbaric product. Dame Vera Lynn, Twiggy, Joanna Lumley, MP Zac Goldsmith, Brigitte Bardot, Bill Oddie, Emma Parker Bowles and Arlene Phillips are among the other high-profile people calling on the store to rid its shelves of this “torture in a tin”.
