Send this sample letter to your local paper to help Viva!’s campaign to end the factory farming of ducks and encourage people to have a veggie dish next time they eat out.

An enormous amount of publicity can be gained through the pages of your local newspapers. Local papers are read by millions of people - particularly the letters pages. But they will only publish those which come from local people, which is why your help with letter-writing is vital. The following letter is a suggestion for you to copy but feel free to compose your own. Please remember to include the date and your name and address.

For a list of local newspapers email addresses, click here.

Dear Letters to the Editor

When the Chinese herald a new year, it is traditionally a time for luck and new beginnings. However, luck has sadly run out for the 18 million ducks that are slaughtered each year in the UK to supply both the restaurant and supermarket trade. 

Almost all of these ducks are from factory farms, housed in cruel and wholly unnatural conditions. Farmed ducks are close relatives of Mallards, the brown ducks and handsome, green-headed drakes you see on every pond. Like them, they have evolved to eat, swim, dive, clean and play in water. Water is the basis of their life. In today’s stinking factory farms, where 10,000 birds are often crammed into one shed, they never even see water, except in their drinkers.

Also like their wild cousins they would love to fly at 50 mph, choose a mate and live for 15 years or more. Fly? Some can hardly walk because of leg deformities.

There’s no mating and life ends brutally after just seven weeks.

Happily, you can help restore freedom to Britain’s favourite bird. Next time you fancy a Chinese, opt for a healthy, animal-friendly veggie dish and ask your local Chinese restaurant to stock vegetarian ‘mock duck’. Or visit www.viva.org.uk/recipes/chinese for more lip smacking, cruelty-free ideas.

For information on the campaign against duck factory farming, contact Viva!, 8 York Court, Wilder St, Bristol BS2 8QH. 0117 944 1000, email info@viva.org.uk.

Yours sincerely
Name and Address