Written by PETA
PETA France tried nicely asking the president of the Trophée des Hauts de France ceremony in Lille, France, not to serve foie gras, but he insisted on displaying the vile "torture in a tin." That left PETA France no choice but to not-quite-so-nicely point out the cruelty involved in its production.
Earlier this year, PETA released a video narrated by Kate Winslet that contains undercover footage taken on French foie gras farms and shows ducks being confined to iron maiden–like cages, unable to stretch even one wing or take a single step in any direction. Such intense confinement is, of course, a violation of Council of Europe guidelines.
Here's how one investigator described the conditions on one farm:
"It is absolutely astounding to enter a force-feeding room. Hundreds of ducks are lined up like shoeboxes. They are … jammed in cages that restrict freedom of movement. They are unable to stretch even the tip of a wing or to turn around. … [D]ucks are haggard, and some of them haven't enough strength to raise their heads anymore. Metal cages, darkness, animals exhausted from struggling, corpses—you feel like you're entering a torture chamber."
PETA Germany has urged the European Commission to crack down on French foie gras farms that illegally confine birds to cages that restrict their movement. You can help by writing to the European Commission and asking it to enforce the 1999 guideline (Council Directive 98/58/EC):
John DalliCommissioner for Health and Consumer PolicyEuropean CommissionB-1049 Brussels Belgiumcab-dalli-webpage@ec.europa.eu
Written by Alisa Mullins
Thank goodness for those actors and actresses who use their clout to get things done. I have e-mailed as asked but cannot help feeling that this is going to be a very long and hard battle to win. I have never eaten or bought fois gras and have no desire to as I have always known from a very young age how it was raised and saw no good reason to condon what these people do by eating it.
So true...all who have commented so far! Unbelievable!...and yet I am not surprised. We have seen how disgusting humans can be. And why? there are a few reasons, but one that affects me the most is Religion (sorry, I know that is a touchy topic). But theistic religions do not teach the "Oneness" of all things, thus humans do not regard animals (etc.) as anything special. One "christian" man told me that "animals are here for us to use (and abuse)". Now how SICK is that??!! As a Buddhist it takes all of my strength to overcome this type of ignorance. We are all One, including animals! Thank you for letting me vent!
The arrogance is unbelievable! I cannot understand how people think they have the right to cause such suffering just because they want to spend a few seconds savoring a "delicacy." I have been around emergency rooms, and I know how much people fear suffering and pain but are still willing to inflict it. That makes the infliction doubly disgusting!
I use to love foie gras Until I realized what it really was I can't walk by it in Whole Foods store with out feeling a bit ill. This product was orginally started by a country woman who had NAILED the goose feet to the floor and force feed it. As far as I'm concerned nothing has changed.
Torment and torture. God help us...
Email sent!!
i am french, i am ashamed
most common answer is that it is "tradition" and even worse... "cultural inheritance"
How disgusting! I would like to see one of those chefs spend just 5 minutes in one of those cages that the ducks spend their whole lives in. The would go mad even in just a short period of time!
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