BBC under fire from Peta for foie gras blunder

The BBC has been flooded with complaints for recently endorsing the trade in foie gras on a popular cookery programme.

The corporation allowed chefs to use the product – the result of force feeding geese and ducks until their lives swell – on the Great British Menu.

The BBC2 show sees chefs compete to produce dishes for a special event – this year it is a “glittering Olympic banquet” to be hosted by former English rower Sir Steve Redgrave.

The issue of foie gras is one I have covered previously, highlighting the cruel treatment of animals to make the stuff.

It involves inducing a disease called hepatic steatosis in ducks and geese by force feeding them grain through a metal tube inserted in their throats.

The birds are held secure by the head and neck before the tube is forced into their throats and grain is pumped into their stomach.

They are force fed around 2kg of grain several times a day. This eventually causes their livers to swell to 10 times their normal size.


They are held in cages small enough to prevent them hiding as they desperately avoid being grabbed by the neck.

The pipes sometimes puncture their throats, and many suffer from ruptured internal organs, fungal and bacterial infections and liver failure. 

The BBC received more than 400 complaints as animal rights campaigners condemned it for publicising the dish and apparently endorsing its production.

Watched by more than two million viewers, chef Johnnie Mountain cooked foie gras ice cream, while competitor Aiden Byrne served black cherry and foie gras terrine.

The BBC defended the show saying: “As long as foie gras remains legal and freely available there is the possibility that it could be used as an ingredient in cookery programmes, just as it remains on restaurant menus around the world. 

“If it were to be banned we would of course no longer allow it to be used.”

That may be true, but there is sometimes a vast difference between what is legal and what is right.

I am disgusted a high-profile and respected organisation, and one to which I pay a yearly viewers fee, would support such a practice.

Yesterday People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) sent a letter of condemnation to the BBC slamming producers in the wake of the show and for promoting foie gras recipes on its website.

As a licence payer, I fully support the condemnation of the BBC’s decision to promote a product derived from animal cruelty simply to boosts viewing figures.

Peta spokesman Mimi Bekhechi said: “Using TV license money to promote foie gras – a product so uniquely vile that its production is banned in Britain – is indefensible”

“The BBC has a responsibility to the public and should remove all foie gras promotions from its webpages and programmes.”

The letter from Peta correctly says the production of foie gras involves the “intentional infliction of illness on animals”.

It points out that the Prince of Wales has disallowed the product from royal menus and that it’s sale is banned in many British shops including Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

I join Peta in urging the BBC to apologise for this gaffe, and to ban the use of foie gras from future cookery programmes and from its website.

For details on Peta and the fight against foie gras visit www.peta.org.uk