Campaign against two restaurants in SW London with foie gras still on the menu

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BACKGROUND

Please send one of two sample letters below to the following:

Places that are still selling foie gras in England include the French Table, Surbiton (they have still not removed it so let’s step up the pressure), and the Petersham Hotel.

THE PETERSHAM HOTEL HAS REMOVED FOIE GRAS SO ITS NAME AND CONTACT INFO WILL BE REMOVED, THANK YOU!

We have many more places but just these two are for now; please call and/or email and politely explain the case against foie gras: for example, tell them about gavage, the method of force feeding which can rip into the birds oesphagus and always causes extreme pain and distress!






WHOM TO CONTACT

Email: enquiries@thefrenchtable.co.uk

Phone The French Table: 020 8399 2365


SAMPLE LETTER ONE

To Whom It Concerns,

I am disturbed to learn that your establishment is still selling foie gras, the production of which inflicts incredible suffering and cruelty upon sentient animals. As such, I respectfully request you take immediate steps to eliminate foie gras from your product list.

Foie gras, French for “fatty liver,” is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds’ throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds’ throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds’ livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras.

Globally, people have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, as you know, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras, effective this year; his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced foie gras, the force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles; and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.

As such, I respectfully request you please reconsider and make the compassionate and ethical decision to ban foie gras. You may be interested to know in addition to those people and places indicated above, many regional chefs and colleagues have recently removed foie gras from their menus, and I would love to inform my friends and acquaintances that you have joined them by also rejecting this torture and eliminating foie gras. Until such a time, however, I maintain the only ethical decision is to promote a boycott of your establishment and visiting instead the ones that do not sell foie gras.

I look forward to a positive response, however, so that I may visit you again.

Please feel free to watch the following video illustrating in disturbing detail the inherent cruelty of foie gras production:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAzrSl0ztsQ&feature=youtu.be

Thank you for your attention to this urgent issue.

NAME


SAMPLE LETTER TWO

To Whom It Concerns,

You are profiting from Foie Gras an extreme form of animal cruelty. Please stop!

The very fact that production of foie gras is prohibited by law in the UK does, I feel, speak for itself. It has been banned in several other EU member states, and will be banned in the state of California effective 1st July 2012.

Foie gras is produced by force-feeding confined ducks or geese massive quantities of food, via a mechanised pump, several times a day for up to three weeks. At the end of this fattening period, the birds’ livers are swollen up to ten times their natural size. The birds are then slaughtered, and their livers are sold as “foie gras.” These conditions precipitate considerable casualties, and the mortality rate of animals in foie gras production far exceeds that of other animal industries. Some birds die when the metal feeding tube rips open their throats; many others die of ruptured internal organs or asphyxiation when food becomes impacted in their throats and digestive systems. Many are so physically debilitated and in so much pain by the end of the force-feeding period that they are unable to stand or walk.

As Roger Moore recently said, “I have seen few things so revolting and shaming as the horrendous routine cruelty to ducks and geese that goes into the production of one of the world’s so-called culinary delicacies, foie gras…this barbaric trade shames everyone who connives to keep it going, by eating the stuff, serving it or stocking it in their grocery shops.”.

I am working hard with many others to demand a complete ban on the force-feeding and use of birds in foie gras production in the European Union, and I request that you lead the way and make a reputable decision to remove this disgusting “delicacy” from your dishes immediately.

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

foie gross is
food by force
feeding, made
is this what you
want to serve
on your customer’s
plates:(

Karen Lyons Kalmenson