What is Foie Gras?
Foie gras, a French term meaning “fatty liver,” is traditionally produced by force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers swell with fat.
In commercial foie gras production, force-feeding takes place 12 to18 days before slaughter. Ducks and geese are confined to small cages and forced to consume unnaturally large quantities of corn mash through a tube that is inserted into their stomachs several times a day. The birds become grossly overweight as a result of this extensive overfeeding, and their livers expand to 10 times the normal size.
Ducks and geese raised for foie gras have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing. The mortality rate for birds raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry, with many birds dying before the end of the force-feeding cycle. Studies on birds raised for foie gras have shown extreme obesity, impaction of undigested food in the esophagus, lacerations in the throat, and a proliferation of bacterial and fungal growth in their upper digestive tracts.
Due to animal welfare concerns, more than a dozen countries—including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel (formerly the world’s fourth-largest foie gras producer), Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Argentina—have either outright prohibited force feeding for foie gras production or have interpreted it as illegal under existing anti-cruelty laws.
In 2004, California became the first U.S. state to ban the cruel force-feeding of birds and the sale of foie gras produced from force-fed birds. The law will come into effect in 2012. Furthermore, in 2008 the San Diego City Council passed a resolution commending those who brought attention to the cruel practice as well as the numerous restaurants refusing to sell foie gras even before the new state law came into effect.
In 2006, the Chicago City Council voted to make the city the first in the country to outlaw the sale of foie gras and instituted a $500 fine for any food establishment that sold foie gras. However in 2008, the City Council reversed their decision and voted to repeal the ban.
It is important to note that some restaurants serve non-confined, non-force-fed fatty liver from birds that naturally fatten themselves in preparation for winter migration. Compassionate patrons of restaurants that still serve traditional, force-fed foie gras can help end this cruel practice by politely raising their concerns with the management or chefs of those establishments and by requesting that they either stop offering this item or replace it with fatty liver from humanely raised animals.
For more information on the foie gras industry, read WSPA’s Report: Forced feeding: An inquiry into the welfare of ducks and geese kept for the production of foie gras >>