Day: January 29, 2005

Israel Bans Force-Feeding of Geese

Following a 2003 Supreme Court decision that found foie gras violated Israel’s animal welfare law, the Israeli parliament this month passed legislation that will end the force-feeding of geese effective at the end of January 2005.

The Israeli Agriculture Minister had requested that the ban not go into effect until the end of March, but the Knesset Education Committee stuck fast to an end of January deadline to stop the practice.

Knesset Education Committee chair Meli Polishook-Bloch was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying of the ban,

The time has come to put an end to the drawn-out period of many years during which the geese have suffered.

Agricultural Ministry Director-General Yossy Ishay, on the other hand, was troubled by the influence that animal rights activists have had on this issue, telling the Jerusalem Post,

This is the first time the Knesset has decided that an entire sector of agriculture is illegal. If we don’t stop the animal rights groups, tomorrow you won’t be able to milk cows or keep chickens in coops.

Israel is among the world leaders in foie gras exports, with over 70 producers that export about $8 million worth of foie gras annually.

Sources:

What’s bad for the goose . . . must stop, committee rules. Stuart Winer, The Jerusalem Post, January 4, 2005.

Israel to ban force-feeding of geese. Agence-France Presse, January 4, 2005.

Oxford University Pledges to Move Forward on Animal Research Laboratory

Despite the intense focus its received from animal rights activists who managed to stop work on a Pound 18 million animal research facility this summer, Oxford University has vowed that it will resume work on the laboratory sometime this year.

The contractor Oxford had hired to build the laboratory, Montpellier, pulled out after intense harassment of its employees; harassment that led to the resignation of one of the company’s directors.

Oxford seems to think that a High Court injunction against activists will be enough to prevent a recurrence of what happened with Montpellier, but at the same time was short on specifics. According to a university spokeswoman quoted by the Press Association,

We’re not saying anything about whether we have got a new contractor other than to say that we hope to resume work early in the new year and are hoping to get it finished by the end of 2005.

Lets hope Oxford isn’t deluding itself into thinking that the injunction itself is simply going to make animal rights extremists go away and not harass employees of whatever contracting company it ultimately hires for the animal laboratory. Oxford is in for a long, difficult process if it goes forward with the building — and it should go forward, but with eyes wide open.

Source:

University Pledge over Animal Research Lab. Katherine Haddon, Press Association, January 5, 2005.