United Airlines Nixes Foie Gras From Classified Restaurant

PETA Sends Airline Duck-Shaped Chocolates in Thanks

For Immediate Release:
November 1, 2017

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After learning from PETA that foie gras is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of ducks and geese who have been force-fed, United Airlines quickly agreed to remove the dish from the menu at Classified, the airline’s invitation-only restaurant at Newark Liberty International Airport.

In thanks for the compassionate decision, PETA is sending the airline a box of delicious duck-shaped vegan chocolates.

“The vast majority of the public is opposed to force-feeding birds for foie gras, so United Airlines’ decision to pull the dish from Classified’s menu is right on trend,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA will keep pushing restaurants around the world to join Classified in rejecting extreme cruelty to ducks and geese.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—notes that in foie gras production, several pounds of fat and grain are pumped into birds’ stomachs every day through tubes shoved down their throats, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. In some cases, birds’ organs even rupture. Investigations into farms in the U.S. and Europe have revealed sick, dying, and dead animals—some with holes in their necks from injuries sustained during force-feeding.

United Airlines took foie gras off its in-flight menus in 1996, after receiving appeals from concerned passengers. More than a dozen countries—including Australia, Germany, and the U.K.—prohibit foie gras production; companies around the world, including Whole Foods and Sam’s Club, refuse to sell it; and top chefs such as Wolfgang Puck and the late Charlie Trotter have refused to serve it.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.