I would like to highlight the growing trend of restaurants, caterers and top chefs promoting the consumption of foie gras.

This so-called delicacy' is steeped in animal suffering and exploitation.

Your readers have the opportunity to change this trend. And I hope they will take it, as if there is no demand, there will be no supply.

Foie gras is produced by force feeding ducks and geese to enlarge their livers. The bird is restrained while a metal tube is forced down its throat. Food is then forced down the tube mechanically. On some farms an elastic band is put around the bird's neck to stop it retching up the food.

The amount of food increases daily until the birds are being force-fed around 6kg (6lbs) a day before slaughter. This is equivalent of a human being made to eat 12.5kg (28lbs) of spaghetti a day.

It has been estimated that 1.8million children could be fed on the grain used to produce 197.5 tonnes of foie gras in France alone.

I urge your readers not to frequent establishments involved in promotion of foie gras in any shape or form.

Readers can take action by writing polite letters to the proprietors of establishments selling or promoting foie gras requesting they take cruelty off the menu.

Organisations such as Compassion in World Farming can supply literature to support the letters.

Foie gras can only be described as an obscene suffering on ducks and geese and we all have the power to change this.

P Fenn Barnfield Road, Sanderstead