I HAVE known for a long time of the cruelty involved in producing pt de foie gras.

Ducks and geese having a funnel forced down their throats and grain then crammed down it, causing their livers to swell up to 10 times their natural size.

Why? -- to produce what the French see as one of their greatest delicacies.

Now, they have gone a terrible step further, producing it by industrial methods. French factory farms are force-feeding the birds by using pneumatic pumps that can fire one pound of maize down the throat in just two seconds.

This allows a single labourer to force-feed more than 1,000 birds in less than one hour, continuing throughout the day.

We cannot only blame the French though, as Britain imported 68 tonnes of this so-called delicacy last year.

TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson is leading a campaign by the World Society for the Protection of Animals to ban the practice.

I would like to ask all chefs, especially those in East Lancashire, to follow Antony's lead, and take pt de foie gras off their menus.

JEAN KAY (Mrs), Cliffe Lane, Great Harwood.