Here’s footage from Hudson Valley Foie Gras during Anthony Bourdain’s visit.

You claim that “As much as four pounds of grain and fat is pumped into their stomachs while the bird desperately tries to get away.”
But you can clearly see that that is not the case in the video. It would also be nice for you to post links of your sources or to cite them at least. There are always two sides to a story and I’d love to be more informed.

Explain to me why California passed a ban on gay marriage and why they elected an Austrian bodybuilder as their governor… Sorry but California lost its credibility forever, at least to me.

http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/894706

This article was written by Sarah DiGregorio who watched that video from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but she also went to visit the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Farm.

She concludes that “the fact that some industrial farms elsewhere are making foie gras in inhumane ways doesn’t mean that all foie gras production is inhumane. You can buy humanely raised chicken, or you can buy chicken that’s had a nasty, brutal life. The same goes for foie gras.”

I wont start on activists harassing customers and chefs at their own homes and will leave it at that…

Foie gras is one of the most sickening examples of humans using cruelty to get luxury. Frankly, I am appalled at the press that this year’s Foie Gras Week is receiving. Not only has The Inquirer run an article on Thursday, March 12, but Philadelphia Weekly & City Paper have run center page ads this past week, as well. I most certainly will not be setting foot in ANY of the restaurants participating in Foie Gras Week, regardless if they don’t usually carry it on their menus. Allow me to explain why.

The process used to fatten up the livers in ducks and geese is called “gavage”. It is force feeding them until their livers become diseased, cease to function and swell up to 10 times their normal size. People in the foie gras industry argue that ducks and geese do not have a gag reflex and that their necks are very flexible. Because of this, they say, the gavage process does not cause the bird discomfort when force feeding. In fact, because their necks are pliable, they are subject to wounds. The animals are force fed up to 3 times per day by inflexible tubes shoved down their throats, which at times, puncture their throats and cause them to bleed to death and suffer painful wounds. As much as four pounds of grain and fat is pumped into their stomachs while the bird desperately tries to get away. Internal organs are ruptured because of the intense pressure of the force feeding. One worker, at some farms, is responsible and expected to force feed up to 500 birds, 3 times per day and because of this rush, animals are roughly handled and left injured and suffering. Workers are often given monetary rewards for not “bursting” the bird. The birds live in unsanitary conditions either in a single wire cage or packed into sheds. The birds, more often than not, cannot walk because of their engorged livers and are reduced to propelling themselves by pushing with their wings. Sometimes, because of the stress, they pull out their feathers and cannibalize one another. This torture lasts 12-21 days. The birds that do survive the force feeding process are then slaughtered for their diseased livers.

Mr. Bernard Dehaene, the organizer of this week’s event states that “the foie gras industry had been unfairly portrayed as cruel”. There is undercover footage by the Humane Society of the United States at Somoma Foie Gras Farms, one of three foie gras farms in the U.S., that shows rats eating the flesh of live ducks who are too bloated and crippled to defend themselves. Dr. Ward Stone, a wildlife pathologist with the NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation and Adjunct Professor at State Univ. of NY has on several occasions conducted post-mortems on ducks that died from force feeding, including ones from Hudson Valley Foie Gras Farms, the very same farm “giving away” the foie gras to Chefs of Choice. In September 2005 he writes, “…the short tortured lives of ducks raised for Foie Gras is well outside the norm of farm practice. Having seen the pathology that occurs from Foie Gras production, I strongly recommend that this practice be outlawed.”
If the foie gras industry is so uncruel, then why will California ban the sale and foie gras production by the year 2012? Why has the practice been outlawed in the U.K., Austria, Germany, The Czech Republic, Luxemborg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Israel? Maybe Mr. Dehaene has been misinformed. Maybe he hasn’t watched the footage from inside one of these farms or even first-handedly watched the gavage process.

In Philly Inquirer’s article, Ms. Mackenzie Hilton states, “As chefs, we are not going to back down.” This is to make a point that she is not going to allow anyone to tell her what she can serve in her restaurant. She’s taking a stand. Celebrity chefs Wolfgang Puck and Albert Roux are against the use of foie gras. Roux has argued that foie gras should come with a warning so that “people know what’s being done to the animals.” Chicago local celebrity chef, Charlie Trotter, maintains the production of foie gras is “too cruel to be served” and stopped serving it in his eponymous restaurant. These chefs have found it important to discontinue use of foie gras because of the cruelty involved & yet, they are still very successful celebrity chefs and their restaurants are thriving even without the foie gras. You can bet your life that they were hammered by the animal’s rights activists too. They chose the right thing to do to make their point.

As for Tyson Chicken, Butterball, and so on, well, you know the rap.

Mcr, Go raise hell in front of a Mcdonalds.

that you come into a post, made a one-liner and then got righteously condescending about another person who made a one-liner tells me a lot about you. and it’s generally not positive.

i have a feeling you are similar to most PETA extremists, my friend.

to be more serious–if you really are an anti-foie activist, perhaps you could explain why foie is a more important piece of the puzzle than agribusiness. It’s far less inhumane, far less destructive to the environment, and a far smaller industry. Why not protest at a McDonald’s that is not only feeding people bad and unhealthy food, but is also destroying the environment and all for the quick buck? There’s a simple class answer there: foie is of the elite and thuse a “low-hanging fruit”. It’s also not where this battle should be waged. Foie gras foodies and non-foie foodies alike should be able to come together to try to promote healthy and sustainable eating habits. Then we can argue about foie. But to start at foie is absurd. you’re honestly distancing yourself from the people most likely to become allies.