Foie gras—which literally means "fatty liver" in French—is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese
with metal pipes until their livers swell up to ten times their normal size. Many birds become so sick
from the process that they can't even walk. All this, just so people can eat their liver?
More information:
GoVeg.com
HumaneSociety.org
StopForceFeeding.com
NoFoieGras.org
GourmetCruelty.com
What Is Foie Gras?
Most people don't have any idea how foie gras is pronounced, let alone how it's produced. The term—pronounced fwah grah—literally means "fatty liver." If the idea of eating an enlarged, diseased liver doesn't make you lose your lunch, the way that animals raised for foie gras are treated will.
Force-feeding
Foie gras is the bloated liver of male ducks and geese who are force-fed enormous quantities of food until their livers expand well beyond their normal size. Workers ram pipes down the birds' throats two or three times a day and pump as much as 4 pounds of grain and fat into the animals' stomachs while the birds desperately struggle to get away. The pipes puncture many birds' throats, sometimes causing them to bleed to death or suffer painful wounds. On some farms, a single worker may be expected to force-feed 500 birds three times each day. Because of this rush, animals are often treated roughly and left injured and suffering.
The practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras is undeniably cruel. A 1996 report by Belgian veterinarians states, "There is absolutely no doubt that force-feeding subjects them to physiological and behavioral suffering which dramatically reduces their well-being." The report further concludes that "force feeding constitutes a reprehensible practice from an ethical point of view."
Injuries and filthy conditions
Many birds have difficulty standing because of their engorged livers, and they may tear out their own feathers and cannibalize each other because of stress. Undercover video footage taken at Sonoma Foie Gras shows rats eating the flesh of live ducks who are too bloated and crippled to defend themselves. This torture lasts 12 to 21 days and causes the birds' livers to bloat until they are up to 10 times their normal size. Because of the injuries and disease caused by force-feeding, the death rates on foie gras farms are between 10 and 25 times higher than the mortality rates on other duck and geese farms, and carcasses of animals from these farms show wing fractures and severe tissue damage to the throat muscles.
Undercover in hell
Investigations at every foie gras farm in the United States and throughout Canada and Europe have documented sick, dead, and dying animals, some with holes in their necks from injuries caused by the pipes that are shoved down their throats. An undercover investigator at one New York farm found ducks with bloody beaks and their wings twisted together jammed into wire cages. At another farm, birds were dangling by wires as blood spilled from their neck wounds onto live birds beneath them. Many birds become so sick from the force-feeding process that they can't even walk.
Things are changing
Foie gras is so cruel that its production and sale is illegal in the state of California and the city of Chicago, as well as the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Poland, Israel, and 10 other countries. Legislators in five states—Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York—are considering laws which would ban the fatty liver, as are city councilors in Philadelphia.
Chefs at leading fine-dining restaurants across the globe are changing their views on foie gras, too. World-renowned restaurateur Wolfgang Puck recently removed foie gras from all of his restaurants. In June 2007, the Driskill Hotel announced it would remove foie gras from its restaurants after learning about the cruelty inherent to its production. The Driskill Grill's Executive Chef Josh Watkins told the Austin-American Statesman:
"Upon further review I'm seeing it in a different light ... I've seen the videos and how they're being raised. I don't want anyone to come into the restaurant and have negative feelings because of something on the menu. I think it's the right thing to do."
The Mansion at Judges' Hill removed foie gras from its restaurant's menu in 2004 due to the "cruelty the poor ducks and geese are subjected to" according to owner Lisa Wiedemann. And Austin's own Whole Foods Market banned the sale of foie gras at its more than 270 stores after company representatives personally toured a foie gras farm, a trip which they called "very upsetting" and "tragic."
