Midsummer House is a two Michelin star establishment in Cambridge that has been the target of peaceful protests for the sale of Foie Gras for sometime.Foie Gras production commonly involves force-feeding ducks or geese until their livers swell painfully becoming diseased. It is illegal in the UK to produce Foie Gras but its sale is still allowed. All the major supermarkets and many other businesses now do not sell the product.Local campaigners regularly turned up at the restaurant handing out leaflets and chanting. They called on the business to take Foie Gras off the menu, but to no avail. On one occasion staff pulled their trousers down at campaigners and on another a staff member broke a peaceful protester’s megaphone and aimed a kick at him on a lively demo. A staff member also called an elderly campaigner a ‘silly old bat’.Anyway, it was reported in the press that on the 19th February the radical animal rights direct action movement, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) took action against the business. They sprayed slogans, glued locks, applied paint stripper to the window and doorframes as well as glass-etching fluid to the windows.
Midsummer House quickly announced it had dropped Foie Gras from its menu sparking articles in the national press.
The actions have been criticised and the label of ‘terrorism’ has even been applied to this property damage. Of course it is the animals that know what it is to be the victim of real violence. No one was harm by the ALF but the birds know the pain and suffering all to well. Do we really value property over the prevention of conspiracy to torture in this so-called nation of animal lovers?
Tags: ALF, Animal Liberation Front, Cambridge, Foie Gras, Midsummer House, Restaurant, UK
