Death Threats From Vegans Force Chef To Drop Foie Gras From Menu

Foie gras may be considered a delicacy, but for some, the controversial food was worth the potential jail time. The King's Arms in Fleggburgh, a fine dining restaurant in Norfolk, was forced to remove the fatty duck liver delicacy from its Valentine's Day menu after receiving repeated death threats from impassioned vegans, according to The Telegraph.

Foie gras is made from extra-fatty goose or duck liver, specially made by force-feeding ducks or geese before they are slaughtered a few months later. Foie gras is illegal to produce in the U.K., but it's not illegal to consume.

Chef Mark Dixon told The Telegraph that "within hours" of posting the restaurant's specialty menu online, they received more than 4,000 complaints and 200 death threats, prompting him to remove the offending dish, which was supposed to be served with baby gherkins, an apple and prune purée, baby herbs, and toasted brioche.

The King's Arms did not necessarily admit defeat:

"We would like to apologize to all of our customers who haven't been able to use our phone lines and social media pages today due to the Vegan Activists harassment over Foie Gras," a representative from the restaurant posted on Facebook. "We have listened to every opinion but when people go as far as ringing our staff, constantly, calling them murderers and death threats we class this as harassment...To stop this unfair behavior on our staff we have decided to remove the Foie Gras from the menu."

The post also specified that police were notified of the harassment claims, and hired to patrol the area Saturday night and make sure no harm came to restaurant employees or diners.