Fed to Death:  - A delicacy of Despair

Foie gras is French for fatty liver and is produced by gavage - forcing metal pipes down the throats of ducks and geese, force-feeding them until their livers become diseased and unnaturally enlarged.  In many cases, this causes their organs to rupture. Production of fois gras is already explicitly outlawed in the UK, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Israel. In 2004, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill prohibiting both the production and the sale of foie gras in California. In 2006, the US city of Chicago passed a bye-law banning the sale of foie gras within its city limits.
I had recently read about the banning of foie gras in California and was pleased to see that a significant public figure had taken a stand against such a brutal practise. Further research unearthed what can only be described as shockingly barbaric abuse of living creatures. The pictures and videos, I slowly endured, relating to the production of foie gras quickly enraged my disbelieving eyes. The serial killer movie, Seven, features a fanatical killer who murders on the basis of the seven deadly sins. The first murder that takes place, relating to gluttony, involves an obese man that is force fed spaghetti until his stomach ruptures, organs fail and he is left to die in a pool of his own excrement. You may be wondering what this has to do with Foie Gras; the answer is very simple – we are committing the exact same torturous crime on Ducks and Geese.

As difficult as it may be I feel it is necessary for the general public to access pictures and footage of the production of Foie Gras.  The literature I was introduced to pictured choking ducks gagging on pipes forced down their throats, geese sitting on their bloodied and swollen behinds in pools of their infected dropping and  birds dying in pain, their stomachs visibly splitting, choking on their own vomit.
Ducks and geese raised for foie gras are mistreated in ways that are already illegal if dogs and cats were the victims. Although foie gras has historically come from force-fed geese, most foie gras farms now raise ducks - mule, muscovy, and genetically-manipulated, sterile animals called moulards. Farmers have found that they can sell more than just the duck’s fattened livers: duck’s legs, breasts, fat, and skin are also harvested and sold as speciality foods. The bodies of geese, however, age too quickly to be used for some of these foods, and so today, in France, only 4 percent of foie gras actually comes from geese.

To the producers of foie gras, female hatchlings are of little use. They do not grow at the same rate as male or the genetically-modified moulards, and thus give a slower return on investment. So instead they are shredded, whilst still alive.
Birds raised for foie gras spend the first four weeks of their lives eating and growing, sometimes in semi-darkness. For the next four weeks, they are confined to cages and fed a high-protein, high-starch diet that is designed to promote rapid growth. Force-feeding begins when the birds are between 8 and 10 weeks old. For 12 to 21 days, ducks and geese are subjected to force-feeding - every day, up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are forced down their throats by means of a feeding tube, between 20 - 30cm in length.  If an auger is attached to the feeding tube the process takes between 45 – 60 seconds.  However, many producers now use a pneumatic pump which takes only 3 seconds.

The Washington Post reported that the tube is pushed 5 inches down their throats and more food than they want is gunned into their stomachs. The bird’s livers, which become engorged from a carbohydrate-rich diet, can grow to be more than 10 times their normal size (a disease called hepatic steatosis).  The mortality rate of birds raised for foie gras has been found to be as much as 20 times higher than that of birds raised normally, and carcasses show wing fractures and severe tissue damage to the throat muscles.
A PETA investigation at a foie gras production facility in New York revealed that workers were expected to force-feed 500 birds three times a day. A worker told one of their investigators that he could feel tumour-like lumps, caused by force-feeding, in some ducks’ throats. One duck had a maggot-covered neck wound that was so severe that water spilled out of it when it drank. Workers routinely carried ducks by their necks, causing them to choke and defecate in distress.  A New York State wildlife pathologist who examined ducks farmed to produce foie gras noted the birds had greatly enlarged livers, the product of overfeeding by force (livers are easily torn by even minor trauma) and one suffered from a laceration of the liver with haemorrhage into the body cavity.
Investigations into foie gras farms in Europe and the United States have all observed the same sick, dead and dying animals, some with holes in their necks from pipe injuries. An Animal Protection & Rescue League investigation found one farm where ducks with bloody beaks and their wings twisted together were jammed into wire cages. At another farm, birds were dangling by wires as blood spilled from wounds in their necks and onto other live birds beneath them. After being subjected to this for about a month, ducks and geese are shackled upside-down, and their throats are cut.
Animals used in foie gras production may also be live-plucked for down. In countries where this practice continues, up to 5 ounces of feathers and down are pulled from each bird every 6 weeks, from the time they are 10 weeks old until they are up to 4 years old. Plucking causes considerable pain and distress. One study of chickens’ heart rates and behaviours determined that “feather removal is likely to be painful to the bird(s)”, and another study found that the blood glucose level of some geese nearly doubled (a symptom of severe stress) during plucking.

Domestic ducks and geese usually enjoy being hand-fed by humans. However, according to one study, birds subjected to force-feeding kept away from the person who would force-feed them. The birds were less well able to move and were usually panting but still moved away. Even ducks confined to cages moved their heads away from the person who was about to force feed them. The birds often shake when approached with the feeding tube.
Geese are social animals that establish hierarchies in their flocks and love to forage. They prefer to be monogamous, and both parents care for their young. One breeder says that geese tend to vary more from one individual to another in terms of personality traits than any other form of domestic poultry. Because most birds raised for foie gras are kept in cages or in very small groups, their social or normal grooming activities are limited or impossible.
In line with recent developments on the banning of foie gras, International Animal and Orphan children Welfare Charity, The Murry Foundation, has launched a campaign that asks local restaurants to voluntarily abstain from serving foie gras. When Gandhi was asked what he thought of western civilisation he commented that ‘it would be a very good idea.’ If as a nation we pride ourselves in civility and compassion it is entirely unacceptable that we profit from such an inhumane activity. Bolton and York City Councils have already banned foie gras and recently Sir Roger Moore wrote to Norwich City Council to call for an end to what he describes as a ‘violent and inherently cruel delicacy of despair.’

In an age of enlightenment and tolerance it seems unimaginable that such obviously torturous and barbaric activities are allowed to continue. Join The Murry Foundation and lend your voice to the promotion of a cultural and moral evolution before we ourselves become the victims of our callous indifference to life on our planet.
Adam Murry (Chairman of The Murry Foundation)

TO PRODUCE FOIE GRAS

 
at 12 weeks old, ducks and geese are restrained, a metal pipe is inserted into their throat, and grain is pushed down the throat into the bird’s stomachs, a process that often results in physical injury.
they are forcibly fed the equivalent to an adult human eating up to 28 lbs (13kg) of spaghetti a day. After two or three weeks, when they are ready for slaughter, their livers will have increased to about ten times their normal size.
their swollen liver expands the abdomen and can make movement and breathing difficult, as well as causing other health problems.
most birds are kept in wire cages which are so small that they have no room to turn around or stretch their wings, and their feet are often injured by the wire floor.
many die before the end of the force-feeding cycle and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is the highest in the poultry farming industry.

Please visit  www.endfoiegras.com