Brexit opportunity to tackle cruelty

As Brexit negotiations get underway I would like to appeal to your readers to support our campaign calling for a ban on the importation of foie gras to the UK.

This delicacy made from the fatty livers of ducks or geese is illegal to produce here under the Animal Welfare Act yet nearly 200 tonnes of it is imported every year for sale at restaurants, delis and shops, including British institutions Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.

Birds on foie gras farms are brutally fattened up, using a feeding tube that is violently forced down their throats several times a day.

Their liver swells to ten times its natural size.

This process, called gavage, causes extreme and prolonged suffering.

Animal Equality’s investigations in French and Spanish foie gras farms have revealed birds suffering from untreated injuries, dead birds in cages with the living, conditions that prevent any natural behaviour and animals in constant and extreme pain.

The UK’s departure from the European Union and associated freedom to change trade regulations provides a unique opportunity for us to ban the importation of this cruel product.

Products that are too cruel to produce here should not be sold here. Your readers can join me in calling for a foie gras-free Britain by signing the petition at www.animalequality.org.uk/foiegras.