Morrissey Donates Settlement Money From Gordon Ramsay TV Gaffe to PETA

TV Network’s Unauthorized Use of Smiths’ Song Results in £10,000 for PETA U.K. Campaign Against Foie Gras

For Immediate Release:
July 9, 2013

Contact:
Shakira Croce 202-483-7382

London — A new PETA U.K. ad highlighting the cruelty behind every tin of foie gras will be funded entirely by Britain’s Channel 4 after the broadcaster used “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” by The Smiths in ads for Gordon Ramsay’s Christmas Cookalong Live back in 2011. Not wanting his work to be used to advertise programs that promote chefs who use foie gras, Morrissey sent his legal team into action, requesting that any money won be donated to PETA U.K.—and Moz prevailed. PETA U.K. received £10,000 (US$15,000), which the group will use to buy ad space for its campaign against cruelly produced foie gras.

“Ramsay may very well stick his head in his microwave when he hears that the money I received from Channel 4 because one of my songs was used to promote his Christmas show is being donated to PETA to fight foie gras,” says Morrissey. “Foie gras is so cruelly produced that he’d be against it if he had an ethical bone in his body.”

“Morrissey never stops speaking out against cruelty to animals, and his generous gift will allow PETA U.K. to be just as outspoken in combating foie gras,” says PETA U.K. Associate Director Mimi Bekhechi. “In a way, we have Gordon Ramsay to thank—it was a gaffe involving his show that will fund our efforts to make sure that everyone knows that foie gras comes from the diseased livers of abused birds.”

The settlement comes just as a PETA U.S. investigation revealed the source of the foie gras served at the Manhattan restaurant Gordon Ramsay at The London: a factory farm in upstate New York where ducks are violently force-fed to sicken and enlarge their livers and where thousands of birds drop dead every year before they make it to slaughter. In response, PETA U.S. has called on Ramsay to swear off serving foie gras at all his restaurants. So far, Ramsay has failed to respond to PETA U.S.’ investigation.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.