I just love Bea Arthur. She has been speaking up for animals for years, most recently narrating this moving KFC video and helping with our Petsmart campaign. Now she is turning up the heat on Beverly Hills restaurant Matsuhisa—where she has been a loyal customer since it opened in 1987—for serving cruel foie gras. Check out her letter below.

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, Owner
Matsuhisa Restaurant
129 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Dear Nobu,

I have been a loyal fan of Matsuhisa since its opening in 1987 and have dined there nearly every week after. I have always loved the food, the décor, and the staff. That’s why I was so dismayed when I recently learned that foie gras is available in the restaurant’s side room. I cannot, in good conscience, continue dining at your restaurant as long as foie gras is offered.

The cruelty of the foie gras industry is staggering. The only way to produce foie gras is by ramming pipes down the throats of ducks and geese and force-feeding them until their livers become painfully diseased. These poor birds are pumped so full of grain and fat that their livers swell to up to 10 times the normal size. Then the animals are killed, and their diseased livers are sold as foie gras.

The world is speaking out against the cruelty inherent in foie gras production. Chicago enacted a ban on the sale of foie gras last year, and Wolfgang Puck recently dropped this cruel “delicacy” from his menu. As you know, in 2012, California will join 15 countries, including Israel, Germany, Switzerland, and the U.K., in banning the production of foie gras—and will join Chicago in banning its sale. I am an avid supporter of this cause, and I lobbied for the foie gras ban in Sacramento. It would be both savvy and compassionate of you to remove foie gras from Matsuhisa’s menu before the ban takes effect in 2012.

I am enclosing a copy of a video, narrated by Sir Roger Moore, depicting the horrific abuse of animals on foie gras farms. I hope that you will watch it and make the compassionate decision to remove foie gras from your menu. Only once I know that Matsuhisa stands firmly against cruelty to animals will I be able to return to my favorite restaurant.

Please contact me via Lisa Lange at PETA.

Yours truly,

Bea Arthur