H & C News recently reported on the campaign against foie gras and, specifically, against Fortnum & Mason continuing to stock it – see link below.
The campaign continues, with PETA reporting significant new support.
Brakes Group
Brakes Group is one of the leading foodservice providers to the UK catering industry and has now confirmed that it will no longer offer foie gras once its remaining stock is gone after learning from PETA about the inhumane treatment of ducks and geese raised and killed for foie gras.
PETA contacted Brakes Group UK after receiving complaints that the catering and ingredients giant was offering a “foie gras and duck liver pâté”. PETA has now been assured that this product – of which only minimal stock remains – has been discontinued.
“Brakes Group UK has told PETA that it will remove foie gras, the grotesquely enlarged livers of force-fed ducks and geese, from the list of products it offers”, reports PETA UK Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi.
Duchess of Hamilton appeals to Fortnum’s CEO
Meanwhiile, Scotland resident Duchess Kay Hamilton, on behalf of her friends at PETA, sent a letter to Fortnum & Mason CEO and Fife native Ewan Venters urging him to stop the selling of foie gras by Fortnum & Mason.
In the letter, Lady Hamilton points out that amongst the horrific findings of abuse during PETA’s undercover investigation of one of the goose farms in France where Fortnum’s supplier obtains its foie gras, birds’ throats were cut open during slaughter without prior stunning, which is illegal in both the UK and France. Lady Hamilton has tried to discuss the matter with Venters personally, to no avail and is hoping a public appeal from one Scot to another might prove more fruitful.
Widespread support
In 2012, Compass Group UK & Ireland confirmed that it had removed foie gras following talks with PETA as well as an online campaign in which PETA supporters appealed to the UK’s largest catering company to ditch the vile product.
Wimbledon, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the BRIT Awards, Lord’s Cricket Ground, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Harvey Nichols and the restaurants in both Houses of Parliament have also all pledged not to serve or sell foie gras, and Prince Charles does not allow it on Royal menus.
Respected chef Albert Roux has said of foie gras, “It’s the same as cigarettes, it should carry a health warning so that people know what’s been done to the animal”. He refuses to serve it in any of his restaurants, which will include Andy Murray’s Cromlix House Hotel..
See previous H&C News article New ad against Fortnum & Mason and foie gras