AN animal rights campaigner will be force-fed outside Bolton Town Hall as councillors vote on whether to introduce a ban on "delicacy" foie gras.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) protester will sit down at a waiter-serviced table this afternoon in a bid to highlight the plight of ducks and geese who have food pumped down their necks in tubes to fatten-up their livers for the dish.

Inside the town hall, Cllr Richard Silvester will table a motion asking Bolton Council to prohibit serving foie gras - which is French for "fatty liver" - at council events and to dissuade local retailers from serving or selling the product. The PETA activist, from Yorkshire, will be fed a meal of grain at 5.30pm.

Birds have up to four pounds of grain and fat pumped into their stomachs two or three times a day until their livers swell to about 10 times their normal size, according to PETA.

Noemie Ventura, who is running PETA's Foie Gras campaign, said: "We want Bolton to help lead the way in taking foie gras off menus and sticking up for the animals."

Earlier this month York City Council became the first in the UK to pass a motion condemning the sale of foie gras and banning it on council premises.