BBC's shame as they endorse cruel Foie Gras

Is this what the BBC should be endorsing?

Click on the banner above top find out how to complain, thanks to animal advocates VIVA.

After complaining about Foie gras featuring on the GreatBritish Menu programme on BBC2 because of the cruelty involved – birds are force fed with pipes until their livers expand to many times their normal size then slaughtered – I received the following reply from the BBC.

Note – this is the same BBC that by law everyone who watches a TV programme in the UK must pay £145.50 for a TV license. Failure to do so means a fine and in several cases, prison. 

Dear Miss Thomson

Thank you for contacting us.

We appreciate you taking the time to contact us about 'Great British Menu' and your concerns were discussed with the production team.

There is currently no ban on the use of foie gras in the UK, and while we appreciate it is a controversial matter, many do enjoy it. As long as foie gras remains legal and freely available it remains a possibility of being included on cookery shows - just as it remains on restaurant menus around the world. If it were to become a banned substance we would of course no longer allow it to be used within our programme.

While you may continue to disagree with foie gras featuring in BBC programmes such as 'Great British Menu', we hope our response explains our reasons for continuing to do so at this time.

Finally, we’d like to assure you that your complaint has been registered on our audience log. This is an internal report of audience feedback that we compile on a daily basis and it’s made available to programme commissioners, channel executives and senior management.

The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.

Thanks once again for taking the time to raise your concerns with us.

Kind Regards

BBC Complaints

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

Let’s break the letter down shall we?

‘Your concerns were discussed with the production team’ – WOW, they must have done it pretty fast because they emailed me that form letter 5 minutes after I lodged my complaint. I know this because others who complained got the same email.

‘While we appreciate it is a controversial matter, many do enjoy it.’ – I’m sure many people enjoy torturing defenceless animals like putting cats on microwaves or treating dogs like footballs, but that doesn’t mean it should be allowed.

They also missed the point. Namely that a publicly funded broadcaster should not be spending license fee payers cash on a food produced by animal cruelty so bad if you did that to any animal in Britain you would be sent to prison. .

Note – also no mention of why a so called French delicacy is being featured in a show called Great British Menu. Did they forget to call it Great World Menu?

The BBC also promote foie gras through their websites.

Footnote - Don't let anyone con you into believing foie gras can ever be more humane. So called humane foie gras means birds have rubber hoses forced down their mouths to force feed them instead of steel pipes. So, that's all right then? Of course not. Countries like the UK who ban the production of cruel foods should also ban their sale.