Selfridges: Stop Selling Foie Gras
Selfridges, the largest department store on Oxford Street, prides itself on its imaginative displays and aesthetic contrasts, but its decision to continue selling foie gras not only lacks imagination but is extraordinarily cruel. Waitrose, Sainsbury's and all other major supermarket chains refuse to carry the cruel product in the UK. Despite this, and despite several meetings between PETA and Selfridges executives, the retailer has refused to stop selling this delicacy of despair.
Ducks and geese raised for foie gras are force-fed until their livers become painfully diseased and enlarged and, in some cases, their organs rupture - abuse that would be illegal if dogs or cats were the victims. Foie gras production is so cruel that it is, in fact, prohibited in 15 countries, including the UK, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Israel, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. An RSPCA poll showed that 63 per cent of Brits favour banning foie gras, and the
Prince of Wales as banned it from the menu at his residences. Sir Roger Moore, the Duke and
Duchess of Hamilton, and countless kind Britons are boycotting Selfridges until the company stops selling the diseased livers of abused animals.
Selfridges claims it has "developed a welfare-friendly alternative to foie gras so customers have a choice". Of course, animals are never given a choice in the matter, and they would never choose to be killed after being force-fed until their livers become diseased. Because Selfridges is exploring other options, the company must think, as anyone with an ounce of compassion does, that there is something terribly wrong with force-feeding ducks and geese. Please inform Selfridges that it is unacceptable for it to continue selling foie gras – a product which the company, on some level, recognises is produced in horribly cruel ways.
Milk: A Cruel and Unhealthy Product
Cows who are allowed to roam free in pastures and care for their young form lifelong friendships with one another. They also play games, have a wide range of emotions and demonstrate characteristics, such as vanity, and actions, such as holding grudges, that are generally associated with humans.(1) But most cows raised for the milk industry are intensively confined and are not allowed to nurse their calves – even for one day. They are treated as little more than milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics that force them to produce more milk. Humans continue to consume dairy products, despite overwhelming scientific evidence indicating that cow’s milk is linked to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other ailments.
Cows Suffer on Dairy FarmsCows produce milk for the same reason humans do – to nourish their young. In nature, some calves suckle from their mothers for nearly a year.(2) One veterinary study explained that ‘during natural weaning, there is never complete and abrupt abandonment of the calf by the cow. In fact, the … cow and calf will maintain a lifelong relationship of social contact and companionship …’.(3) Another study found that a ‘strong maternal bond’ develops between a cow and her calf in as little as five minutes.(4) But calves born on dairy farms are taken from their mothers when they are just 1 day old and fed milk replacers (including cattle blood) so that humans can have the milk instead.(5,6) This forced separation causes cows and calves great stress, and cows have been known to escape enclosures and travel for miles in an attempt to reunite with their young.(7)
Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays.(8) After giving birth, they lactate for 10 months, then they are re-inseminated, and the cycle starts again. Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors; others are crammed into massive mud lots. Cows have a lifespan of about 25 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years, but the stress caused by factory-farm conditions leads to disease, lameness and reproductive problems that render cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time they are 4 or 5 years old, at which time they are sent to the slaughterhouse.(9,10)
On any given day, there are more than 2 million cows living on UK dairy farms – about 2 million fewer than there were in the 1960s.(11) Yet milk production has continued to increase, from 12 million metric tons per year in 1961 to more than 15 million metric tons in 2003.(12) Although these animals would naturally make only enough milk to meet the needs of their calves (around 7 kilograms a day), genetic manipulation and antibiotics are used to force each cow to produce more than 6,000 litres of milk a year (an average of 16 litres a day).(13,14) Cows are also fed unnatural, high-protein diets, which include dead chickens, pigs and other animals, because their natural diet of grass would not provide the nutrients necessary for them to produce the massive amounts of milk required by the industry.(15)
References:
1)Rosamund Young, The Secret Life of Cows, United Kingdom: Farming Books and Video, 2003.
2)Joseph M. Stookey and Derek B. Haley, ‘The Latest in Alternate Weaning Strategies’, Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, 2002.
3)Ibid.
4)Frances C. Flower and Daniel M. Weary, ‘Effects of Early Separation on the Dairy Cow and Calf: 2. Separation at 1 Day and 2 Weeks After Birth’, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 70 (2001): 275-284.
5)David Goldstein, ‘Up Close: A Beef With Dairy’, KCAL, 30 May 2002.
6)‘Mad Cow Casts Light on Beef Uses’, Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2004.
7)W. Morrison, ‘Biker Death Inquiry Told of “Runaway Cow” Tragedy’, Aberdeen Press and Journal, 16 May 2001.
8)David R. Winston, ‘Goals for Heifer Rearing’, Department of Dairy Science, Virginia Polytech University, 1 Oct. 1996.
9)Anne Karpf, ‘Dairy Monsters’, The Guardian, 13 Dec. 2003.
10)Richard L. Wallace, DVM, MS, ‘Market Cows: A Potential Profit Center’, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.
11)Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, ‘Cow Milk, Whole, Fresh Milk Animals (Head)’, FAOSTAT Database, last accessed Mar. 2004.
12)Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, ‘Cow Milk, Whole, Fresh Production (Mt)’, FAOSTAT database, last accessed Mar. 2004.
13)Charles Kilpatrick, ‘Bigger and Better?’ Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, 27 Mar. 2002.
Burberry: When Plaid Goes Bad
Burberry may be best known for its distinctive plaid, but its use of real fur is making the design house synonymous with cruelty to animals. Burberry continues to use fur in its designs, despite the fact that leading designers like Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood and Tommy Hilfiger and others have pulled fur from their stores forever.
Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages, where they are exposed to all weather conditions. They often go without adequate shelter, clean water and veterinary care, and they are denied the opportunity to engage in natural behaviours like climbing, burrowing and swimming. The intensive confinement causes many of them to go insane.
Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruellest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gassing and poisoning. Many animals are electrocuted by having rods inserted into their rectums and 240 volts sent through their bodies. The animals convulse, shake and often cry out before they have heart attacks and die. Crude killing methods aren't always effective, and sometimes animals "wake up" while they are being skinned.
Burberry knows about the suffering that goes into every fur-trimmed coat, hat and bag, yet the company continues to use fur in its designs. With so many fashionable, comfortable alternatives available, there is no excuse for Burberry to continue using dead, tortured animals in its designs.
