Groups Seek to Ban Foie Gras Production in New York, One of the Leading U.S. Producing States: What is Foie Gras and Why is it Bad?

A great move.

What is foie gras and why is it bad?

Foie gras (translated literally from French as "fatty liver" and pronounced 'fwah grah') is produced by cruel and inhumane farming practices. At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day. A farm worker grabs each duck and, one by one, thrusts a metal pipe down their throats so that a mixture of corn can be forced directly into their gullets. In just a matter of weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.

As a result, ducks raised for foie gras have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing. Many of them die before the end of the force-feeding cycle, and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry. Necropsies performed on foie gras ducks 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.

More information on foie gras can be found at:
http://www.nofoiegras.org/

Article:

Humane Society seeks foie gras production ban

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060621/od_
uk_nm/oukoe_uk_food_foiegras_1

Wed Jun 21, 7:59 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Animal rights groups on Wednesday sought to ban foie gras production in New York, one of the leading U.S. producing states, arguing that overfeeding birds to fatten their livers makes the animals sick.
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The Humane Society of the United States filed a formal action with the New York U.S. State
Department of Agriculture and Markets to stop the practice under a state law that makes it illegal to produce food from diseased animals.

"It's illegal for farmers to intentionally make their animals sick and then sell them at market as if nothing were wrong," said Carter Dillard of the Humane Society.

The Humane Society, with other animal rights groups, filed 900 pages of documents arguing that ducks and geese are force-fed for weeks until their livers become fattened.

Originally a French delicacy, foie gras means literally "fat liver."

According to the Humane Society, California and more than a dozen countries have already banned the production of foie gras, and Chicago recently banned its sale because of animal welfare concerns.