Now that Christmas is quickly approaching, there's one dish that Anna Chancellor wants everyone to keep off their dinner tables: foie gras. That's why the "Duckface" actor stars in a new PETA video that reveals why cruel foie gras production is illegal in the UK and more than a dozen other countries.
Anna Chancellor (Famous)
"Foie gras is actually the final stage of an illness: fatty liver disease," she explains. "In order to make it, ducks and geese are force-fed several times a day via a pipe that's jammed down their throats. This abuse continues until their liver swells up to 10 times their normal size."
By the end of their lives, many birds force-fed for foie gras have trouble breathing because their enlarged livers compress their lungs. PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that "animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way" – has released exposés of foie gras farms that revealed sick, dead, and dying birds, some of whom had holes in their necks from being impaled by the feeding pipes.
"The scientific consensus is absolutely clear: it's impossible to produce foie gras humanely," Chancellor concludes. "So this festive season, please join me in extending peace and goodwill to ducks and geese by saying, 'F*** off!' to foie gras."
Chancellor is part of a long list of celebrities – including Ralph Fiennes, Ricky Gervais, Dame Vera Lynn, Kate Winslet, and the late Sir Roger Moore – who have joined PETA's anti–foie gras campaign.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.