The move was welcomed by Viva who were sent a letter by the Prince of wales and follows the criminal damage last week by the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) to Midsummer House in Cambridge, causing £6'000 and the restaurant to end serving the torture.

The same group also targeted the Hunting HQ (Horse & Hound) and nearby kennels in Gloucestershire, in the same county as the Prince's House of Cheese.

Source:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/27/npate127.xml

Related articles
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391735.html (See addition)
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/02/391793.html (See addition)
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coincidence

What is Foie Gras?

To some, foie gras is seen as an expensive ‘delicacy’; it is a pate made from the enlarged liver of ducks and geese as a result of force feeding. The aim of foie gras production is to increase the fat content of the liver so dramatically that veterinarians consider it a disease, "hepatic lipidosis." A duck's liver naturally weighs around 50 grams. However, to qualify as foie gras, the industry's own regulations require ducks' livers to weigh an absolute minimum of 300 grams.

Is this cruel?

Foie gras is produced by forcing a long metal pipe down the throats of male ducks and geese and force-feeding them massive amounts of grain, resulting in their livers swelling to up to 10 times their normal size.

Two to three times a day, a worker grabs each bird, shoves a long, thick metal tube all the way down his throat, and an air pump shoots up to two pounds of corn mush into his oesophagus.

The vast amounts of feed pumped down the ducks' throats causes enormous internal pressure, and the pipe sometimes punctures the oesophagus, causing many to die from choking on the blood that fills their lungs.

Some birds literally burst, choke to death on their own vomit, or become so weak that they are unable to fend off rats from eating them alive. Other ducks die a slow, painful, and premature death by suffocation from inhalation of regurgitated feed.

 http://www.sarconline.co.uk/foiegras/foiegras

You can help persuad the restuarant by politely contacting the shop:

House of Cheese
13 Church Street
Tetbury, Gloucestershire
GL8 8JG
UK

Telephone: 01666 502865
Fax: 0871 264 0022
E-mail:  enquiry@houseofcheese.co.uk

 http://www.houseofcheese.co.uk