{"id":20587,"date":"2012-08-13T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T11:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=20587"},"modified":"2012-08-05T15:29:59","modified_gmt":"2012-08-05T14:29:59","slug":"investigation-exposes-cruelty-at-foie-gras-farms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/08\/investigation-exposes-cruelty-at-foie-gras-farms\/","title":{"rendered":"Investigation Exposes Cruelty at Foie Gras Farms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roasted foie gras fillet, with fresh chestnuts and soymilk skin. This dish from Mugaritz, considered the third-best restaurant in the world, sounds exotic. But how this \u201cdelicacy\u201d \u2013 foie gras means \u201cfat liver\u201d \u2013 is produced and at what cost have been unmasked in an investigation led by Animal Equality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The organisation exposed<\/a> the internal management of multiple foie gras farms \u2013 six in Spain and four in France. In the undercover study, which began in July 2011, activists shot footage and photographs and conducted interviews by pretending to be interested in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to hide what they do, because foie gras implies so much suffering to animals,\u201d Sharon N\u00fa\u00f1ez, general coordinator of the organisation, told IPS. All the footage was acquired legally because they did not use hidden cameras.<\/p>\n

The Committee of the European Convention for the Protection of Animals Kept for Farming Purposes<\/a> established recommendations concerning the welfare of ducks and geese. Adopted in 1999 by the Council of Europe, these guidelines\u2019 key points concerned the health and behaviour of ducks and geese.<\/p>\n

Article 7 of the document states: \u201cAt the inspection it must be borne in mind that the healthy bird has sounds and activity appropriate to its age\u201d including \u201cclear bright eyes, good posture, vigorous movements if unduly disturbed\u2026good plumage\u2026effective walking, bathing and preening, and active feeding and drinking behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Article 10 requires that housing system allow the animals to \u201cflap the wings, turn around without difficulty and stand up in a normal posture\u201d.<\/p>\n

But as one of the videos from Animal Equality<\/a> shows, the animals do not exhibit what is considered appropriate behaviour. Some of them drop their heads in water containers and are unable to move, sometimes due to their weight and at other times because of individual cages.<\/p>\n

A European Commission spokesperson, Frederic Vincent, told IPS that according to the recommendations, \u201cuntil new scientific evidence on alternative methods and their welfare aspects is available, the production of foie gras shall be carried out only where it is current practice and then only in accordance with standards laid down in domestic law\u201d.<\/p>\n

But since foie gras farms are apparently not following these recommendations, in January, the European Commission adopted a new strategy<\/a> where effective implementation is a high priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recommendations explicitly acknowledge the legality of the production of foie gras as such and only put countries allowing foie gras production under certain obligations,\u201d said Vincent.<\/p>\n

Today, only five countries produce foie gras: France, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary and Belgium. France, the biggest manufacturer, produced around 20,000 tons of foie gras in 2011, according to the report by the ministry of agriculture. <\/a><\/p>\n

Foie gras in the United States<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the United States, the debate reached the U.S. Department of Agriculture in early July, when the Animal Legal Defence Fund filed a lawsuit.\u00a0 The key point of the group\u2019s argument is that in order to get foie gras, ducks and geese are force-fed in order to enlarge their livers up to ten times their normal size.<\/p>\n

Carter Dillard, director of litigation <\/a>for the Animal Legal Defence Fund, told IPS, \u201cIt\u2019s a simple principle: healthy animals make healthy food, and unhealthy animals make unhealthy food.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are literally willing to torture the animal just to make them taste better and that\u2019s really barbaric,\u201d said Dillard.<\/p>\n

On Jul. 1, the state of California banned force-feeding. As a result, foie gras may no longer be consumed, produced, or sold there. Since the closing of Sonoma Farm in California, only two foie gras farms remain in the United States. Both are in the state of New York \u2013 La Belle Farm and Hudson Valley Foie Gras.<\/p>\n

The organisation Humane Society<\/a> has been very active in this debate. Paul Shapiro, the group\u2019s vice president for farm animal protection, told IPS that \u201d cutting off the California market for this cruel and inhumane product is an important move forward for the humane movement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The more Americans learn about \u201chow abusive and inhumane\u2026force-feeding is,\u201d Shapiro added, \u201cthe more horrified they would be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artisan Farmers Alliance<\/a>, a group representing American foie gras farmers, has been actively fighting the California ban and supports a lawsuit filed in federal court against the state. This case is led by Association des Eleveurs de Canards et D\u2019Oies from Quebec, Hudson Valley Foie Gras and Hot\u2019s Kitchen Restaurant Group of California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary effort is a legal effort,\u201d Marcus Henley, the secretary for Artisan Farmers Alliance, told IPS.<\/p>\n

The Humane Society, however, has also intervened in this lawsuit. They are working primarily to keep the California ban in force, said Shapiro. On July 18, the judge ruled that the law would remain in force during course of the case.<\/p>\n

The latest development in this debate is the amendment introduced by Congressman Steve King (R-IA), to the 2012 farm bill, which will prevent states from imposing their own standards on agricultural products imported from other states. This amendment will affect directly to the foie gras ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia has no right constitutionally to tell a New York farmer or an Iowa farmer that they can\u2019t sell their product, legally produced under federal regulations, in the state of California,\u201d said Henley.<\/p>\n

While organisations like Artisan Farmers Alliance or Hudson Valley Foie Gras are trying to fight bans on the consumption of foie gras, maintaining that force-feeding is not a practice that causes animals to suffer, Humane Society and Animal Legal Defence Fund are focusing on the law\u2019s effective implementation, emphasising the cruelty of the activity.<\/p>\n

The debate is ongoing. Indeed, foie gras production is not going to stop soon, as there is some evidence of an emergent black market in California. For others, this product has an expiration date.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think 50 years from now people will be horrified that we ever did this,\u201d Dillard said.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carter Dillard, director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defence Fund, told IPS, \u201cThey are literally willing to torture the animal just to make them taste better and that\u2019s really barbaric. I think 50 years from now people will be horrified that we ever did this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-rights-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20587\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}