ANIMAL rights campaigners held a demonstration in Exeter to encourage restaurants to remove foie-gras from their menu.

Protestors in Cathedral Yard asked shoppers to sign a petition against outlets selling foie-gras, which is produced by force-feeding ducks or geese.

Sharon Howe, of Exeter Friends for Animals, said: "There is nothing humane about inducing disease in a bird by forcing a pipe down its throat and making it consume such an abnormal quantity of food that its liver expands many times its normal size."

The campaign is backed by Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, who said: "The Government has banned the production of foie-gras in Britain. Under the single market rules of the EU, we do not have the power to ban its import or sale, so the most effective way for people to express their opposition to foie-gras is not to buy or sell it."