Animal activists drop giant banner on the Thames demanding foie gras import ban

Pressure on the government to ban the importation of foie gras is intensifying. Activists from animal protection organisation Animal Equality have unfurled a giant banner on Victoria Embankment.

It says “KEEP YOUR PROMISE: BAN FOIE GRAS IMPORTS”, in direct view of parliament. The action follows the launch of 150 billboards and ads running across south east England sharing the same message. These are likely to reach 30 million passers-by.

Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese via a metal pipe inserted down the throat, multiple times a day. This cause their livers to swell up to ten times their natural size.

The practice is so cruel that it has been illegal to produce in the UK for 20 years. Yet the UK continues to import the product. This allows restaurants to profit from suffering that would be a criminal offence if it took place on UK soil.

Just days before the last General Election, the government promised to ban foie gras imports. A senior Labour Party representative watching an Animal Equality investigation into a French foie gras farm reacted:

…great big pipes down those animals’ throats, and they’re just forcing that food in. Oh, they’re terrified. Disgusting. Look at the tiny little cages they’re in as well. That is just shocking. It is beyond disgusting. They’re force-feeding these terrified animals to fatten their livers.

Continuing, he added:

Vote for change. A vote for Labour is a vote for animals.

Foie gras ban at risk

Years on, that promise remains unfulfilled, and campaigners now fear the ban is at risk due to ongoing EU-UK Sanitary and Phytosanitary trade negotiations which aim to ease trade.

Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, said:

The government made a promise to the British public and we have not forgotten. Every day this ban is delayed is another day that ducks and geese are violently force-fed – a practice that deliberately induces organ failure and is so cruel it is a crime to carry out in the UK.

The government’s negotiators must not trade away animal welfare commitments. Ministers would do well to remember who they represent; with nearly nine in ten Brits in favour of a ban, they have a clear mandate. The government must keep its word.

Public opinion is overwhelmingly behind a ban. The latest YouGov polling shows that almost nine in ten (87%) of the UK public support banning foie gras imports. This makes it one of the most widely supported animal welfare reforms across the UK. Animal Equality’s petition calling for a ban has surpassed 329,000 signatures.

At a recent parliamentary roundtable, hosted by Labour MP Irene Campbell, Dr Huw Golledge, chief executive and scientific director of Science for Animal Welfare, said:

The disease is not a side effect. Causing the disease is the purpose of the production system. Anyone looking objectively at the evidence would conclude that this is something that should not continue.

Featured image supplied