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PETA Unveils Undercover Video of Ducks Subjected to Severe Cruelty in Their Final Weeks Before Slaughter
For Immediate Release:March 6, 2013
Contact:Shakira Croce 202-483-7382
Carignan, Québec -- PETA has just debuted shocking video footage from its recent undercover investigation of a Carignan factory duck farm operated by Marieville-based Palmex, Inc., part of Rougié, the self-proclaimed "world's #1 producer of foie gras." The investigation follows the continued sale of foie gras from Palmex at Hot's Kitchen, a Los Angeles–area restaurant, despite a California law banning the sale of the cruelly obtained product. PETA filed a lawsuit against Hot's in November. PETA's new video footage from Palmex unveils how the ducks spend their final weeks before they're killed in barren metal cages not much bigger than their own bodies, where they can't take two steps in any direction or spread even a single wing and are denied water to bathe and swim in.
"Exposés have repeatedly revealed that foie gras farms deny ducks all that is natural and important to them and force-feed them until holes are punched in their throats—it's nothing short of barbaric, which is exactly why California outlawed foie gras sales," says PETA Senior Research Associate Dan Paden. "The grotesque suffering shown in PETA's new video should be a wake-up call to restaurants and distributors to drop this cruel product from their shelves and menus for good."
Previous exposés at foie gras farms have shown that workers repeatedly ram pipes down ducks' throats—often resulting in gaping puncture wounds—and pump up to 4 pounds of grain and fat into them to sicken and enlarge their livers. Those who survive the feedings suffer from a painful illness that causes their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Some birds can no longer walk and can only propel themselves over the cage floors by pushing with their wings.
According to Dr. Anthony Pilny, an avian veterinarian who reviewed PETA's Palmex footage, "This housing denies and frustrates the ducks' basic biological needs, and it is cruel and inhumane." World-renowned avian welfare expert Dr. Ian Duncan notes that "individual cages … prevent the birds from carrying out natural behaviour that is essential for their physical and psychological health."
For more information, please visit PETA.org.