Retail: Saying No To Foie Gras

The retailer will no longer stock the luxury food stuff, controversially made by force feeding geese, at any of its food outlets including flagship Edinburgh store, Jenners.

It follows a long campaign by animal rights campaigners Advocates for Animals, headed up by the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton. The aristocratic couple started a boycott of Jenners in 2000 in protest at the stocking of foie gras.

The Duchess congratulated the group in a letter published on the Advocates for Animals website - saying she and her husband would be returning as customers to Jenners. She said, “I am indeed delighted that House of Fraser has taken the ethical decision to end the sale of foie gras.

“There can surely be no excuse for inflicting such terrible suffering on these animals in order to produce a luxury food such as this. I am pleased that my husband and I will once again be able to shop in Jenners and I am sure many other shoppers will feel the same.”

Foie gras literally means ‘fatty liver’ and is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers swell to six to ten times their normal size. Advocates for Animals said pneumatic pumps force huge quantities of food into the birds in just a few seconds.

The practice would almost certainly kill the birds if they were not slaughtered, the campaigner said. House of Fraser food buying manager Sandy Collyer, said, “We have reached a decision to stop selling foie gras on ethical grounds.”

The group operates more than 70 stores across the UK, not all of which stock food.