Game of the Goose

With Christmas around the corner and festive menus with all manner of gastronomic delicacies being planned, one item that might controversially be on many a shopping list is Foie Gras. Controversially, ducks used in the production of foie gras can be force fed, kept in inhumane conditions and forced into processes which unnaturally enlarge the liver to 10 times its usual volume. As a result of this cruelty, the production of foie gras was banned in many European countries, yet there is still a large consumption, and importation of the product is not banned.

With the upcoming festive season in mind, Wakker Dier, the Dutch animal rights organisation advocating the welfare of animals in the livestock industry wants to remind anyone planning menus containing foie gras of the cruelty involved in the production of the perceived-delicacy. They commissioned Antwerp-based creative studio Mutant to help them with that task. With the traditional board game Game of the Goose - a game played in Europe and the US since 15th Century when Francesco de Medici of Italy gave the game to King Philip of Spain as a gift - in mind, Mutant created a very special version of the board game for the animal rights organisation.

At first sight, the game looks like the traditional version by using its retro style with bright, cheerful colours and illustrations that are purposely in the sweet, nostalgic style associated with the traditional board game. However on closer inspection things aren't what they first seem. The game is in fact a replica of the original, replacing the traditional images and rules of the game with haunting illustrations of some of the horrifying procedures used and carried out on the animals in the production of Foie Gras, with the rules reflecting the same. The rules of the game have been rewritten. In the original Game of Goose a player might end up in ‘jail’ or ‘the pond’, in this version, the geese get brutally force-fed, a perforated oesophagus or bird flu breaks out - a true representation of the realities of being a goose in the production of Foie Gras, all for human consumption.

For example, if the dice lands on number 10, the command is: Six times a day a steel tube is used to pump fatty corn porridge into your oesophagus. Skip 1 turn. Or number 31: 31. 44. Perforated oesophagus: The steel tube that was pushed down has punctured your oesophagus. Return to 19. (full rules and commands in Notes to Editors).

Launching as an influencer campaign, the small-batch consignment of board games will be sent to Dutch animal rights influencers (see notes to editors for list of influencers), as well as a film on the organisation’s social channels.

RULES:
5. You're a female chick: Too bad, you're worthless for foie gras. You'll be ground up alive into cat food or manure. Return to start.

10. 20. 30. 40. 50. 60. Force-feeding: Six times a day a steel tube is used to pump fatty corn porridge into your esophagus. Skip 1 turn.

14. Broken wing: You break your wing while trying to escape from your tiny cage. Skip three turns.

22. Bird flu: This contagious disease breaks out on the goose liver farm. You and all other geese are gassed; each player goes back to start.

31. 44. Perforated esophagus: The steel tube that was pushed down has punctured your esophagus. Return to 19.

27. 38. ‘Animal-friendly’ force feeding: You are now being force-fed with a rubber tube instead of a steel tube. Hooray. Throw again.

52. Saggy legs: Your liver swells and is diseased. The fat liver pushes your legs into such a position that you have difficulty walking. Go back the number of eyes thrown.

59. Your liver isn’t fatty enough: Only when your liver is 6 to 10 times larger
than normal, the farmer is satisfied. There is still work to be done! Go back to 13.