On Saturday 26 July local people joined “Wacky the Duck” to protest against celebrity chef James Martin’s delicatessen ‘Cadogan and James’ in Winchester.

Cadogan and James are one of the few remaining businesses in the South who still sell foie gras, made from the livers of ducks and geese force fed so their livers accumulate fat and swell to up to ten times their natural size.

Even the people of Winchester were unable to turn a blind eye as Wacky was brutally force fed by the protesters. Highly visual placards showing scenes of foie gras cruelty, and a large banner depicting a human being force fed, with the words, “Foie Gras: how would you like to be force fed” helped to drive home the message.

Wacky represented the millions of his kind who are held in foie gras farms, confined in cages and forced to stand and sleep on wire mesh floors. During force feeding a metal tube is pushed down the throat and an air pump pushes up to 2 pounds of corn into the bird. Under cover investigations have revealed de-beaking, sick and dying birds, birds eaten alive by rats, birds with bleeding and infested wounds in their necks caused by force feeding, tumour-like lumps in birds’ throats, and birds with lacerated livers.

Saturday’s event was part of an ongoing campaign aimed at Cadogan and James in the hope that, knowing the cruelty involved, James Martin will no longer allow his businesses to stock the product.

Encouraging compassion towards other species is an essential step towards saving the planet: humankind's obsession with eating animals is a major cause of climate change, deforestation, desertification, water pollution, and starvation.