Tell Selfridges to Stop Selling Foie Gras

What comes to mind when you think about Selfridges? Expensive clothes? Designer bags? How about the diseased livers of force-fed ducks and geese? Now, I'll grant that the last one might seem a little crazy, but that is exactly what Selfridges is selling.

Foie gras is the diseased liver of a duck or a goose. Even though foie gras production is so cruel that it is illegal in the UK, Selfridges continues to import foie gras from abroad to sell in its department stores. Ducks and geese used for foie gras live in misery from the day they are born until the day they die.

They often spend their entire lives in cages, and they are force-fed so much food that some birds' livers burst. Birds used for foie gras are held down as they struggle desperately to escape the force-feeding. Then pipes are shoved down their throats. The birds lose the ability to walk and suffer from broken feathers and bleeding sores. Some birds have broken wings or legs, and some have maggot-infested holes in their throats from pipes which missed the mark.

When workers use air-driven pumps to force corn into birds' stomachs, the animals' internal organs sometimes rupture. Finally, birds who survive are slaughtered when their livers swell to six to 10 times the normal size.

Please use the form below to send an e-mail to Paul Kelly, CEO of Selfridges, and Sasha Notley, group technical manager for Foodhall & Restaurants. Ask them to stop selling foie gras in Selfridges stores.