Morrissey Donates Money from Gordon Ramsey Lawsuit to PETA's Campaign Against Foie Gras

BY Alex HudsonPublished Jul 9, 2013

Morrissey is extremely outspoken in his support of animal rights and vegetarianism, so it was no surprise that he took exception to a Smiths song being used for Gordon Ramsey's Christmas cooking special a couple of years back. Not only did Morrissey win a £10,000 payout (about $15,000 Canadian) from Britain's Channel 4, but he's now donated it all to PETA's campaign against foie gras.

Back in 2011, Channel 4 used the Smiths tune "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" in a commercial for Gordon Ramsay's Christmas Cookalong Live. Morrissey unsurprisingly wasn't happy about the usage, since he had apparently not been asked for permission.

In a statement, Morrissey said [via the Guardian], "Ramsay may very well stick his head in his microwave when he hears that the money I received from Channel 4 because one of my songs used to promote his Christmas show is being donated to Peta to fight foie gras. Foie gras is so cruelly produced that he'd be against it if he had an ethical bone in his body."

PETA representative Mimi Bekhechi added, "With this generous gift, Morrissey is literally putting his money where his mouth is and combating cruelty to animals."

We should point out that, as far as we know, Moz isn't literally putting his money where his mouth is.

The campaign is targeting the London department store that sells foie gras. The food has caused controversy, since it requires the duck or goose to be excessively force-fed prior to slaughter. A PETA clip about foie gras is below, as is the commercial that started this whole dispute.

Channel 4 issued this brief statement about the payout: "In this instance, a small payment was made additionally to our music blanket agreements for this trailer."



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