I WISH to highlight the growing trend of restaurants, caterers and top chefs promoting the consumption of Foie Gras. This so called delicacy is steeped in animal suffering and exploitation. Your readers have the power to change this trend, if there is no demand there will be no supply.

Foie Gras is produced by force feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers. The bird is restrained while a metal tube is forced down its throat. Food will then be forced down the tube mechanically. On some farms an elastic band is put around the birds neck to stop it retching up the food.

The amount of food increases daily until the birds are being force-fed around 6000g/6lbs a day before slaughter. This is the equivalent of a human being made to eat 28lbs of spaghetti a day. It has been estimated that 1.8 million children could be fed on the grain used to produce 197.5 tonnes of Foie Gras in France alone.

I urge all your readers not to frequent an establishment involved in promoting Foie Gras in any shape or form. Readers can take action by writing a polite letter to the proprietor of establishments selling or promoting Foie Gras, requesting they take cruelty off the menu! Organisations such as Compassion in World Farming can supply literature to support your letters.

Foie Gras is an obscene and indulgent practice that inflicts unnecessary suffering on ducks and geese.

MRS RITA HALL, Berryfields Road, Hampton, Evesham.