Shocking videos of ducks living under miserable conditions have led Danish food company Løgismose to completely stop selling foie gras.
The videos and photographs – which depict dead and sick animals living in tiny cages – were recorded by animal rights organisation Viva and inside a factory owned by French company Ernest Soulard.
Løgismose bought foie gras, a fatty duck liver pate, from the company and supplied it to Danish restaurants and supermarkets, but have now decided to completely stop selling the product.
READ MORE: Uphill battle to ensure better animal welfare
Welfare decision
“We fundamentally believe that animal welfare and taste go hand in hand,” a Løgismose spokesperson told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We are now going to act on the consequences of this belief, which means we will no longer sell foie gras.”
Foie gras, which is made by force feeding ducks so their livers swell to ten times their normal size, is illegal to produce, but not to sell, in Denmark.
Torture in a tin
Viva has already successfully campaigned to stop online retailer Amazon from selling foie gras and now have its sights set on chef Gordon Ramsay, who sells Ernest Soulard foie gras in his restaurants.
“Ducks caged and filthy in their own vomit and clearly in distress, all to produce a dollop of fat as a choice on expensive menus that no-one needs,” Viva campaign manager Justin Kerwell stated in a press release. “I can’t imagine why anyone would want to eat it – or be involved in its sale. It is quite simply torture in a tin.”
Viva hopes Ramsay will follow in the footsteps of Danish celebrity chef Thomas Rode who, following Løgismose’s decision, has chosen to stop selling foie gras at the acclaimed restaurant Kong Hans Kælder, where he is head chef.
