Media Release

19th December 2007

Viva! Condemns Disney?s ?Torture in a tin?

Viva! ? Europe?s largest campaigning vegetarian organisation ? is lending its support to a campaign by Dutch animal welfare group Wakker Dier to remove foie-gras from the menus of Disneyland Paris.

A satirical animation film aims to illustrate to British holiday makers that spending Euros at the holiday park might be supporting a practice so cruel it is banned back home. Donald Duck and Gus Goose are idolised at Euro Disney. Yet, at the same time, foie-gras, which is produced by painfully force feeding these species, features heavily on the menus of the park?s restaurants*. This is the first joint European consumer campaign ever to have been launched against the use of foie-gras in the home of this cruel ?delicacy?.

The cartoon shows how three happy-go-lucky geese visit an amusement park. These geese are force fed using machines operated by a duck and subsequently processed into chunks of foie-gras by an evil mouse. The animation film can be viewed at www.wakkerdier.nl/protest ; protest e-mails can also be sent via this website.

Birds used in foie-gras production have a pipe pushed down their oesophagus and food is forced into their stomachs two or three times daily for two to three weeks until the birds develop fatty liver disease. Around a million birds annually die during this process. Over 90 per cent of the 30 million birds used every year in France for foie-gras are male ducks. Females are not used, instead they are gassed or minced alive at a few days old.

The campaign for a more animal-friendly Disneyland Paris is being run from The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Denmark and Israel, by the following organisations Wakker Dier, Viva!, GAIA, Stop Gavage, LAV, Dyrenes Venner en Anonymous for Animal Rights.

?Disney and torture don?t appear to go hand in hand,? says Viva! campaigns manager Justin Kerswell. ?But behind the glitz and the glamour there?s no fairytale ending for the millions of birds subjected to the terror of force-feeding to produce foie-gras. Eurodisney should show some heart and give this cruel p?t? the boot.?

Viva! Recently held a day of action against foie-gras, which saw over 400 people take part in peaceful actions. The group persuaded UK branches of Lidl and Makro to pull foie-gras and was instrumental in Harvey Nichols decision to drop it. They have have also produced their own satirical on-line film on foie-gras, which can be viewed at www.viva.org.uk/foiegras

Notes for editors
* http://entertainment.disneylandparis.co.uk/restaurants-and-bars/restaurants/cafe-mickey.xhtml
For more information on the campaign, photos or video of foie-gras production, contact Justin Kerswell or Amy Mason on 0117 944 1000 or visit www.viva.org.uk/foiegras .
For more information on Stichting Wakker Dier?s campaign contact Hanneke van Ormondt, telephone number 0031 (0)6 ? 4575 6529