Urge Royal Caribbean to Drop Foie Gras

PETA

BACKGROUND

Because of the extreme cruelty involved in the production of foie gras—the diseased and “fatty liver” of force-fed ducks and geese—many restaurants and grocery stores around the world have stopped serving and selling it. Yet Celebrity Cruises—which is owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises, the world’s second-largest cruise-line operator—continues to serve foie gras on some of its cruises.

Investigations of foie gras farms in the U.S. and overseas have documented countless sick, dead, and dying birds, including some animals who were found suffering from holes in their necks after pipes had been forced down their throats. One investigation in New York found ducks crammed into wire cages. Animals’ beaks were bloody, and their wings were twisted together. At another foie gras farm, in Europe, birds were found dangling by wires as blood spilled from their neck wounds onto live animals beneath them.

Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been condemned by the pope and is prohibited in 15 countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.


WHOM TO CONTACT

Richard Fain
CEO of Royal Caribbean
rfain@rccl.com


SAMPLE LETTER

Dear CEO Fain,

I am greatly disturbed to learn that on some cruise ships Royal Caribbean is serving 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 menus.

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, 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 Royal Caribbean has 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 ships and utilizing instead the ones that do not sell foie gras.

I look forward to a positive response, however, so that I may visit your establishment 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

royal caribbean,
your foie gross
policy really stinks,
compassion is a ship
that must not sink

Karen Lyons Kalmenson