Tag: Foie Gras

Bill to Ban Foie Gras Approved by California Senate Panel

The California Senate’s Business and Professions Committee panel this week narrowly approved a bill that would ban the production and sale of foie gras in that state.

By a 4-3 vote*, the committee voted to move the bill to the Senate floor for consideration. Since the bill’s sponsor, John Burton (D-San Francisco), is widely viewed as one of the more powerful members of the California Senate, the fact that he could barely squeeze the bill through his own committee suggests that the bill’s chances before the full Senate are not good (much less making it through the House and obtaining Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature).

The bill as passed by the committee was amended to delay the proposed phase out of foie gras — the proposed ban would not go into effect until 2012.

Burton told the Associated Press that he didn’t believe that introducing the ban was not “in any way . . . validating or acquiescing to this illegal activity” by animal rights extremists who have engaged in acts of violence against Sonoma Foie Gras, California’s sole producer of foie gras.

The owners of Sonoma Foie Gras beg to differ, and on their web site accuse Burton of setting a dangerous precedent that has the effect of,

  • legitimizing the violence, terror, and negative propaganda campaign carried out by animal rights extremists
  • providing a viable entry-point to any minority wishing to impose their beliefs on the rest of us.

The full text of the proposed ban on foie gras can be read here.

* As an example of how poorly they frequently do their jobs, the Associated Press reported that the committee passed the bill by a vote of 4-1, while Reuters reported that the bill passed by a vote of 4-2. The California Senate web site’s roll call for the vote, however, confirms that the bill barely squeaked through on a 4-3 vote.

Sources:

Lawmakers OK ban on force-feeding birds to make foie gras. Jennifer Coleman, Associated Press, April 26, 2004.

California moves to ban foie gras. Reuters, April 27, 2004.

California State Senator Introduces Bill to Ban Foie Gras

In February, California state Sen. John Burton introduces a bill in the state senate to ban the production of foie gras within that state.

After introducing his bill, Burton told reporters that the force feeding of ducks and geese to produce foie gras should be outlawed,

They put a tube down their throat, down their esophagus, and shoot that food down there, whether they want it or not, cram it right down their gullet. And many places, other countries have banned it. The state of Israel has banned it. I just think it’s the right thing to do.

The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights issued a press release in early February touting a coalition of animal rights groups that will be doing their part to support the bill and asking activists to contact California legislators with their support for the bill. The press release said,

The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR) is working with a coalition of groups including Farm Sanctuary, Viva!USA and LA Lawyers for Animals, as the sponsors of this bill.

. . .

We need your help to ensure that this bill is passed into law and this inhumane practice is ended in our state. There is only one foie gras producer in California (Sonoma Foie Gras), but they’ve already hired an attorney to work on their behalf and have recruited exclusive restaurateurs to fight for this high-priced luxury item made from diseased ducks.

The full text of the bill can be read here.

Sources:

Help ban force feeding of ducks in California. Press Release, Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights, February 2004.

Sacre bleu! No more foie gras from California?. Spencer Swartz, Reuters, February 12, 2004.

Animal Rights Activists Take on Foie Gras in France

British newspaper The Independent reported in December that animal rights activists in France have started a campaign to try to outlaw the force feeding of geese in the production of foie gras there.

Foie gras producers maintain there is nothing cruel or unusual about force feeding ducks and claim it mimics behavior patterns of migratory birds.

Opponents of foie gras argue the practice is cruel and, besides, most of the species used to produce foie gras are not migratory. One of the organizers of the campaign to abolish force feeding, Sebastien Arsac, told The Independent,

Force-feeding kills a million ducks and geese in France every year and makes another 39 million ill. They suffer from diarrhoea, forced breathing, painful displacement of internal organs and inflammation of the neck.

The European Union has already decided that force feeding of geese constitutes animal cruelty and ordered farms not to find alternative methods for producing foie gras. But, it also gave the world’s leading producers of foie gras — France and Hungary — 15 years to comply with that requirement.

Given the large numbers of people employed in foie gras production in both countries and the likelihood that no alternative acceptable to animal activists will be found, however, even that 15 year deadline is likely to end up being a moving target.

Sources:

Hungary foie gras farms under threat. Nick Thorpe, BBC, January 12, 2004.

Foie gras: forcing a feeding rethink. Datamonitor, January 13, 2004.

Animal Rights Activists Try To Knock Stuffing Out Of Foie Gras. John Lichfield, The Independent (UK), December 28, 2003.

Activists Take Journalist Along on Duck-Stealing Mission

Four animal rights activists with a group calling itself the Animal Protection and Rescue League took along a reporter for the Los Angeles Times during a September raid in which the activists stole four ducks from a duck shed owned by Sonoma Foie Gras.

Activists Bryan Pease, Kath Rodgers, Carla Brauer and a fourth individual who asked the LA Times reporter not to identify him, broke into the shed and took four Peking-Muscovy ducks. The activists told LA Times reporter Marcelo Rodriguez that they had carried out similar operations in the past as part of what they called “the underground railroad for ducks.”

The group apparently decided to ask a reporter to tag along after the media had largely ignored a video of the sheds the group had produced earlier in the year that was then released to the media by a group called Gourmet Cruelty (it did not help that local authorities concluded that animals in the sheds were being properly cared for).

Sonoma Foie Gras owner Guillermo Gonzalez, who has been the subject of relentless harassment by animal rights activists, aid that he would pursue legal action against the activists if they did, in fact, steal animals from his property. Gonzalez told the Times,

Unfortunately, some activists hold animals in higher esteem than they do humans. Our animals are treated humanely, and anybody who enters our farm can see that.

Source:

Activists Take Ducks From Foie Gras Shed. Marcelo Rodriguez, The Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2003.

Animal Rights Extremists Vandalize Sonoma, California Restaurant

On the night of August 9, animal right extremists broke into and vandalized a new restaurant in Sonoma, California and also damaged an adjoining 19th century historical building which had recently been restored.

Activists targeted Sonoma Saveurs because one of its owners, Guillermo Gonzalez, is the only producer of foie gras in the Western United States and the restaurant will feature foies gras, among other things, when it finally opens.

According to the Press Democrat, the animal rights activists got into the restaurant by squeezing through an exterior water heater closet and then tearing a hole in an interior wall. One in, they spray-painted animal rights slogans throughout the building, poured dry concrete down drains, and then turned on the water.

By the time the vandalism was discovered, water had seeped into surrounding buildings including a historic 19th century adobe building that had once been used by Mexican Gen. Mariano Vellejo. The water also damaged a women’s clothing store that adjoins the restaurant.

The three owners of the restaurant, Gonzalez, Laurent Manrique, and Didier Jaubert, have also faced acts of harassment and vandalism from animal rights extremists at their homes.

The Sonoma News reported that,

Late last month vandals trashed Jaubert’s home in Santa Rosa and Laurent’s residence in Mill Valley. They spray-painted the buildings, etched the windows with acid, poured glue in locks, covered a statue of a Buddha with red paint and splashed acid all over a car. A report lauding those attacks is posted on the Bite Back site.

Jaubert told the Sonoma News,

You can be tolerant, you can believe in freedom and respect diversity, but it is sometimes difficult to understand some actions. … If you don’t like foie gras I can understand. If you don’t want foie gras to be sold you can demonstrate in front of the store, you can write letters to the editor, you can do many things. But to destroy a historical building, to attack a family’s home, to do this at night and to be proud of your actions – this is very difficult for me to understand.

Total damage from the attack is estimated at $50,000.

Sources:

Animal activists vandalize Sonoma Plaza restaurant. Mary Callahan, The Press Democrat, August 15, 2003.

Animal activists vandalize restaurant. Associated Press, August 15, 2003.

Vandals flood historic building. Patricia Henley, Sonoma News, August 15, 2003.

Israeli Supreme Court Bans Force Feeding of Foie Gras

Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled on August 11 that the force feeding of geese and ducks in the production of foie gras violates that country’s Animal Welfare Law.

A group called Concern for Helping Animals in Israel filed a lawsuit in 2001 against foie gras producers in Israel claiming that the force feeding of approximately 800,000 animals each year violated the Animal Welfare Law.

Israel is the world’s third largest producer of foie gras, and the industry employs about 600 people. There are about 100 farms producing foie gras, with about 45 percent of those using force feeding.

Those currently using force feeding will have until at least March 2005 to develop alternatives.

Sources:

Israel court cans foie gras farms. BBC, August 13, 2003.

High Court rules against force-feeding geese. Stuart Winer, The Jerusalem Post, August 13, 2003.

Court bans fattening of geese for foie gras. National Post (Canada), August 12, 2003.