Winslet lends voice for PETA campaign against foie gras

LONDON - Oscar-award winning actress Kate Winslet has lent a narrative for a video campaign for animal rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), highlighting the abuse of ducks and geese for foie gras.

Winslet has joined the ranks of British acting legends Roger Moore and late John Gielgud by teaming up with PETA to condemn foie gras.

“Foie gras is sold as an expensive delicacy in some restaurants and shops, but no one pays a higher price for foie gras than the ducks and geese who are abused and killed to make it,” Winslet says in the video.

“Please join us in helping ducks and geese by pledging never to eat foie gras,” she appeals.

The video will also be sent to Indian business houses in an effort to implore them to refuse to sell the product, says a press statement.

To make foie gras, French for ‘fatty liver’, workers use metal pipes to pump approximately two kilograms of a mixture of grain, maize and fat into the stomachs of ducks and geese several times per day.

As a result, their livers swell up to 10 times the normal size and the animals become sick and are often unable to move. The pipes often puncture birds’ throats, and many animals bleed to death.

The bodies of force-fed birds, who have died, show heavy internal bleeding, fungal and bacterial infections and hepatic encephalopathy - a brain ailment caused by liver failure.

Foie gras production has been banned in 16 countries, including Britain, Germany and Israel. Prince Charles has even banned it from Royal menus.