Ban Foie Gras

Although I’m not an avid animal rights activist, I believe their rights should never be overlooked. Recently, I had lunch with a close friend of mine at a popular upscale restaurant located in center city, Philadelphia named Rouge. While we both were trying to enjoy lunch, we were overwhelmed by the amount of screaming protesters rallying directly across the street. Meanwhile, my friend and I were enjoying our salads which contained no meat whatsoever; we were confused as to what they were protesting about. The posters they held were hard to ignore, graphic and gory pictures of ducks and geese being force fed by large metal tubes. Their feathers mangled and ruined, their wings bloody from mistreatment, and their cages untidy and overcrowded were all parts of the images they displayed. These were all parts of the process of producing the popular delicacy known as foie gras. Now that I am fully aware of the way these animals are being treated in order to create a delicacy, I feel it necessary for more people besides these demonstrators to take a stand for these helpless animals.
Foie gras means “fatty liver” when translated from French into English. It is the liver of a duck or goose that has been fattened by force feeding the animal. When ducks or geese are very young, they are confined to dark, overcrowded sheds. Each day, the animals are fed over four pounds of corn mash, which is more than they would consume in a normal day naturally. They are fed by farmers using a one foot metal tube which is then inserted into the animals’ mouths. The feeding machine attached to the metal tube and funnel pumps a large amount of a corn-and-oil mixture directly into their throats in just a few seconds. This is equal to about one-fourth of the birds’ own body weight. This is practiced each day until the bird can hardly stand or walk due to its’ engrossed liver, which indicates that the bird is now ready to be slaughtered.
Throughout farms across America, majority of all the birds and ducks from the foie gras farms suffer from many illnesses due to the treatment they receive on these farms. Obviously there is damage to their esophagi, and furthermore, most commonly, the birds suffer from liver disease, which in this case is called hepatic steatosis. The liver is primarily used to flush out toxins in the body, so if the liver is not functioning properly, then the toxins run free throughout the body spreading problems in areas like the brain. Once this occurs, the bird is no longer able to function properly.
The production of foie gras and the torture the harmless animals endure can be compared to that of what humans must endure while being held in concentration camps. When humans are placed involuntarily and under duress, they suffer from cruel beatings, torture, and just overall inhumane treatment. Ducks and geese also did not ask to be placed in these overcrowded confinements that are used to raise the animals solely for the purpose of being slaughtered after being aggressively force-fed and abused daily. Therefore I consider the foie gras farms to be “animal concentration camps”.

A few points while researching this topic came to my mind that tended to sway my point of view from time to time. For instance, chefs who were against the ban on foie gras in Chicago, backed their opinions by stating that the birds are raised to be slaughtered any way, therefore it really did not make any difference as to what method farmers used because they would only be murdered in the eventually. I decided then to search for the actual definition of animal cruelty, and what the difference of raising animals for food and actually torturing them in the process. I came across one legal definition of animal cruelty and it stated that it is the crime of inflicting physical pain, suffering or death on an animal, usually a tame one, beyond necessity for normal discipline. It can include neglect that is so monstrous (withholding food and water) that the animal has suffered, died or been put in imminent danger of death. Another article I found referred to the Michael Vick case. It brought up the point as to why society thinks that Michael Vick was in the wrong when animals are killed daily just for food. It explained that animals are killed quickly and painlessly as possible. They are not tortured to the point where they die of a slow and painful death, which is simply coldhearted.