Saturday 19 May 2012

Living Cruelty Free is now available on Kindle USA, UK


Many people have asked me when Living Cruelty Free would be available on Kindle. So, I'm delighted to announce the book is on sale at Amazon.co.uk priced £6.41.

You can also buy the Kindle version on Amazon.com priced $10.14

Because it's a great reference guide to things like hidden nasties in foods that are not suitable for vegetarians or vegans, how to spot if products are tested on animals and how to tell if something is Fairtrade (amongst other things) it's the perfect guide to carrying around on your Kindle when you go shopping.

Monday 14 May 2012

Shame of Cumbrae Bistro for selling cruel Foie gras

After hearing about the BBC promoting cruel Foie gras, I was very disappointed to see a The Cumbrae Bistro in Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae on my doorstep selling this so called delicacy.


Who'd have thought I would see this vile food on my own doorstep?

It's very disappointing and proves that publicly funded companies like the BBC promoting a food so cruel it's production is banned in the UK and most other European countries does have an effect.

The Cumbrae Bistro isn't the only place where you can buy this cruel food. Harvey Nichols has decided that although they will stop selling it in their food halls they will continue to serve it in their restaurants.

I have since heard of a UK company funding a so called Foie gras factory in China, a country where humans have few rights and animals have none. After campaigning by animal welfare organisations such as Compassion in World Farming the company concerned Creek Project Investments Plc have stated that they've announced 'a suspension of the present foie gras operations, until the completion of a full review.' Read the full statement here

Read more about this story here

Whether that means they will pull out completely remains to be seen, because companies with low morals have done that before. Here's hoping this company will not.

Update - Shortly after this was printed, my partner was threatened by two men on the street. The loudest objected to me publicising the Cumbrae Bistro selling Foie Gras. Why? Because clearly he knew what a cruel food it was, but didn't care. Sometimes standing up to save animals can lead to aggressive reactions. Sadly, there are some people who don't want the cruelty to end because they make too much money out of it.

Friday 11 May 2012

The Greatest Guide to Living Cruelty Free: BBC's shame as they endorse cruel Foie Gras

The Greatest Guide to Living Cruelty Free: BBC's shame as they endorse cruel Foie Gras

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

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.