Written by Michelle Kretzer
If PETA's recent successes are any indication, down is going down fast.
The latest company to make the synthetic leap onto our anti-down bandwagon is Colorado's leading furniture manufacturer, Woodley's Fine Furniture. The Woodley brothers started their company decades ago with the intention of offering quality home furnishings that did not take a toll on nature—but they had been designing sofas stuffed with down. After PETA sent the company our down exposé, Woodley's agreed that its vision did not include using feathers that were yanked out of live birds or feathers from birds who had tubes rammed down their throats for the cruel production of foie gras and will no longer purchase down-filled upholstery.
Ready to make the down industry's feathers fly? Check out PETA's top five ways to take action against down—because if people in the skiing capital of the U.S. are done with down, shouldn't the rest of us embrace warm and soft synthetic options, too?
PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk put her money where her mouth is—in a very literal sense—in an eye-catching protest outside British retailer Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly store this week.
The protest illustrated what geese endure while they are being raised for the foie gras sold in Fortnum & Mason stores. But in order to replicate fully how foie gras is produced, Ingrid would have had to be force-fed several times a day for weeks until her diseased liver had painfully swelled to up to 10 times its normal size.
The process is so cruel that it's illegal in the U.K., but Fortnum & Mason continues to sell foie gras imported from France, where a recent PETA U.K. investigation documented the confinement of geese to crowded, filthy pens and their slaughter while still conscious.
High-profile British venues, including the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Wimbledon, Lord's Cricket Ground, and all the residences of His Royal Highness Prince Charles, refuse to serve foie gras, and retailers Harvey Nichols, Selfridges, House of Fraser, and Jenners refuse to sell it. PETA UK won't stop until it has added Fortnum & Mason to that list.
It's a happy new year for ducks and geese after Great Britain's House of Lords pulled foie gras from its restaurant menus. PETA U.K. had appealed to the lords, pointing out that it was entirely inappropriate to be serving a dish that is so cruel that it is illegal to produce in the U.K. Baroness Young of Hornsey responded by saying, "Just as we do not tolerate cruelty to dogs or cats, so we should reject inflicting pain and suffering on birds."
In the foie gras farm exposé that he narrated for PETA, Sir Roger Moore explains that workers ram hard metal pipes down ducks' and geese's throats several times a day and force-feed them grain, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. The pipes sometimes puncture the birds' throats, and many animals suffer from ruptured internal organs, fungal and bacterial infections, and liver failure. Those who survive the traumatic force-feeding process are slaughtered, and their diseased livers are sold as a "delicacy." This is obviously a highly traumatic, recurring experience for the birds, who stop grooming and withdraw, shaking, into the far reaches of their pens if they can.
The House of Lords joins countless other high-profile British venues in banning foie gras from the menu, including the House of Commons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Wimbledon, Lord's Cricket Ground, high-end retailer Harvey Nichols, and all the residences of His Royal Highness Prince Charles.
Written by Jeff Mackey
In an oddball attempt to break back into the Japanese fast-food market, Wendy's had introduced a burger that contained foie gras—you know, the smashed, bloated liver of a force-fed goose. But after a PETA campaign—including action alerts (hooray to everyone who chipped in) and an appeal to fellow Wendy's shareholders—the burger chain has dropped the foie gras.
California has banned the sale and production of foie gras, and its production has also been outlawed in more than a dozen countries, including Australia, Germany, Israel, and the U.K. Most airlines won't serve it, and the best of the big grocery stores won't stock it.
What You Can Do
If you learn that a restaurant you patronize serves foie gras, please tell the store's owners or managers where foie gras comes from: the utter misery of force-fed birds. Ask them to watch the shocking undercover video recently released by PETA U.K. and narrated by Sir Roger Moore, and let them know that you won't be dining there again until foie gras is taken off the menu.
A little-known restaurant in Hermosa Beach, California, must have thought it was being sly. The restaurant was selling a hamburger topped with foie gras when California's ban on the sale of the cruelly produced, diseased duck liver went into effect on July 1. After the ban was in place, the restaurant continued to serve the foie gras burger but tried to be crafty by changing the menu to read that people who purchased the burger would receive a free side of foie gras. But PETA wasn't buying it.
We contacted the Hermosa Beach Police Department, but with a lot on their plates, they haven't gotten around to the case. So we've taken the matter to court, filing suit against the restaurant, called Hot's Kitchen, for engaging in unlawful business practices.
Of course, selling foie gras isn't just unlawful—it's despicable. Every PETA undercover investigation of a foie gras farm has revealed that ducks often choke to death when workers ram hard metal tubes down their throats to force-feed them and that ducks' organs often rupture from the excessive amounts of grain that are pumped into their stomachs. One duck had a gaping hole in his neck that was so severe that water spilled from it when he drank. And two ducks whose organs had swelled so large that they could not move were being eaten alive by rats.
Foie gras production is so cruel that 15 countries have banned it, including the U.K., Germany, and Australia, and more U.S. states will likely follow California's lead. And PETA intends to make sure that greedy restaurant owners won't get away with underhandedly hawking this "delicacy of despair."
Leona Lewis and James Cameron are the latest compassionate celebrities to embrace vegan eating. Not surprising on either count, since James, who won a PETA Proggy Award for the animal-friendly film Avatar, said he planned to grow crops on his 2,500-acre rural New Zealand property, and Leona, a Sexiest Vegetarian alum, won't wear animal skins and unceasingly advocates for animal rights. Of the choice to eat vegan, James said, "It's not a requirement to eat animals, we just choose to do it, so it becomes a moral choice and one that is having a huge impact on the planet, using up resources and destroying the biosphere."
A very eloquent case for vegan eating, indeed.
© StarMaxInc.com
Adoption advocate Lance Bass spoke about his healthy eating convictions as well, saying of veganism that he is "getting close." He said the work he has been doing planting gardens with schoolchildren has inspired him: "I was eating way too much more protein and not enough veggies, and now I've completely changed that in my diet. … It's amazing, and I feel so much better, completely much better."
PETA UK's disturbing new undercover footage of foie gras farms is enough to make anyone go vegan. Celebrities were fired up on Twitter about British retailer Fortnum & Mason's cruel sale of foie gras and about other animal issues:
While these celebs rocked Twitter, another animal advocate was getting a rocking honor: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and for the first time, voting is open to the public. Cast your vote for Joan, who never misses an opportunity to raise her powerful voice against cruelty to animals.
To keep up with what all the stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Written by Alisa Mullins
It was a cruel irony. Birds raised for foie gras become so ill that they can barely walk, much less fly. Yet fly they did on certain American Airlines international flights during which foie gras was served in first class. After PETA was alerted to this by upset passengers, we contacted airline officials and informed them about the cruelty of foie gras production, which involves jamming pipes down ducks' and geese's throats and pumping several pounds of grain and fat into their stomachs every day until their livers expand to up to 10 times their normal size. An average of 20 percent of ducks on foie gras farms die before slaughter, 10 to 20 times the average death rate on a regular duck farm.
We're thrilled to announce that now foie gras is no longer being served on any American Airlines flights!
Speak up whenever you see foie gras being sold in a store or served in a restaurant. Let restaurant managers know that as long as the livers of force-fed birds are on the menu, nothing can force you to eat there.
It's barely been a week since California's foie gras ban took effect, and already a few greedy restauranteurs have their magnifying glasses out, searching for loopholes that might allow them to serve the delicacy of despair. But compassionate people aren't letting the cruel gluttons get away with it.
© stopgavage.com
One San Francisco restaurant, Presidio Social Club, located in the Presidio National Park, sent out an announcement that flies in the face of the ban:
As a result of being on federal land, the Presidio Social Club (PSC) is exempt from the state-wide ban on heavenly Foie Gras. Therefore, PSC will be celebrating two important independences this July: Bastille Day for the French, and the freedom to enjoy Foie Gras for Californians.
The restaurant's rationale is questionable at best, and the executive director of the park's trust properly tweeted his intent to challenge it:
We are concerned that this action is inconsistent with the values that we promote in the Presidio—sustainability, respect for our environment, responsible stewardship. We will engage with the Presidio Social Club on these concerns.
And while other restaurants invent their own ludicrous loopholes or simply continue to unapologetically dish up the diseased livers of force-fed ducks and geese, animal advocates aren't going to let that slide. As PETA Associate Director of Campaigns Lindsay Rajt told one news outlet, "It's upsetting to see businesses trying to exploit loopholes, and you can bet that protesters will be picketing and showing footage outside their doors."
One thing is clear: the legislature and the public has spoken and that it's time for goose abuse to be off the menu.
With California's foie gras ban having taken effect July 1, it's time for the rest of the country to do some soul-searching, starting with New York, the only state in the union with operating foie gras farms. Here are the top five reasons for the rest of the country to follow California's lead in banning this dreadful "delicacy":
(c)stopgavage.com
Birds raised for foie gras are force-fed multiple pounds of grain and fat every day via a pneumatic tube that is rammed down their throats—a process that former California Sen. John Burton colorfully describes as "doing the equivalent of waterboarding." Burton, who spearheaded California's ban, has said of chefs opposing the ban: "I'd like to sit … them down and have duck and goose fat—better yet, dry oatmeal—shoved down their throats over and over and over again."
Force-feeding causes birds' livers to swell to as much as 10 times their normal size, resulting in a painful disease known as hepatic steatosis (which makes foie gras a diseased organ and therefore illegal to sell in the U.S., according to a lawsuit filed last month by several animal protection groups). The birds often suffer from internal hemorrhaging, fungal and bacterial infections, and hepatic encephalopathy, a brain disease caused when their livers fail.
Contrary to the claims of foie gras peddlers, ducks do have a gag reflex, and, in fact, often vomit after being force-fed. An employee at California's now-defunct foie gras farm admitted that "[s]ome [ducks] die from heart failure as a result of the feeding, or from choking when they regurgitate." An undercover investigator at a Canadian foie gras farm saw a duck vomiting blood after the force-feeding pipe apparently punctured his esophagus or stomach.
Undercover video shot on French farms, which supply much of the foie gras sold worldwide, shows ducks crammed individually into shoebox-like cages that are barely larger than the birds' bodies. Their heads and necks protrude through a small opening for force-feeding. The ducks are confined in this way—unable even to stretch a wing or take a single step in any direction—for 24 hours a day. Many don't survive the ordeal: An average of 20 percent of ducks on foie gras farms die before slaughter. That's 10 to 20 times the average death rate on a regular duck farm.
Force-feeding birds has been denounced worldwide by experts in the field of poultry welfare. The scientific consensus is so strong that foie gras production has been banned in more than a dozen countries, including the U.K., Israel, Germany, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and it will be outlawed throughout the European Union by 2020. Prince Charles refuses to allow foie gras on Royal menus, and celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck refuses to serve it.
While we wait for the rest of the country to follow California's progressive lead, you can help ducks right now by urging the gourmet grocery chain Dean and DeLuca to stop selling foie gras.
When successful gourmet food connoisseur and upscale hotel manager Eva-Miriam Gerstner talks turkey, Europeans listen. And when she talks goose, well, that makes for an in-your-face anti–foie gras ad that made several German luxury hotels and restaurants stop serving the cruelly produced dish "cold turkey" after PETA Germany sent them a copy.
Photo: Marc Rehbeck • Hair/Makeup: Maike Albeck c/o LIGANORD • Postproduction: Andrea Hildebrandt • Studio: Aplanat • wire.
If restaurants in your area are still serving foie gras, please follow Eva-Miriam's example and be a mouthpiece for ducks and geese.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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