Green Party councillor Ben Duncan has demanded that the sale of foie gras be outlawed across Brighton and Hove.

I believe that the production of foie gras should be internationally banned along with shark fin soup.

Every year tens of millions of sharks suffer painful deaths to supply the cruel and wasteful shark fin trade. The fins are used in dishes such as shark fin soup which may be served in Chinese restaurants, during banquets, weddings and other events.

Despite alarming declines in shark populations, hundreds of shark fins will be changing hands this Chinese new year for astronomical prices as restaurants and hotels stock up to meet the anticipated demand for the upcoming celebrations in February. This threatens sharks because they reproduce slowly, more like mammals than fish. Some sharks only have one or two pups every other year and they may take nine or more years to mature.

Shark fins are often removed when the animals are alive, the sharks are then thrown back into the water to enure a painful death by suffocation, blood loss or predation by other species. Shark fins have little nutritional value and may even be harmful to health over the long term as shark fins have been found to contain high levels of mercury.

Sharks aren't the vicious killing machines they've been made out to be. They are living entities that feel pain. They are essential to a healthy ocean ecosystem but they are rapidly disappearing at an alarming rate because of some human's ignorance, stupidity and greed.

  • David Hammond, North Court, Hassocks