Widespread Public Support for Ban on Foie Gras—Liver from Force Fed Ducks

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As seen in today's New York Times, the Animal Protection and Rescue League (www.APRL.org) protested a foie gras dinner held last night to call attention to a statewide ban on force feeding and sale of products of force feeding the group helped pass, which takes effect next year. Foie gras is the grossly enlarged liver of a force fed duck.

"Our extensive research has only uncovered about 300 restaurants in California to have ever been serving foie gras," states APRL campaigns director Jonathan Wadley, PhD. "Of those, we have already convinced over 100 to remove it."

Last month, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution applauding the animal protection measure and commending restaurants for removing the controversial item before the ban takes effect. Six other city councils—San Francisco, San Diego, Berkeley, Solana Beach, West Hollywood and Carlsbad—have done the same.

"There is no level too low for this cruel industry to stoop to in trying to deceive consumers into believing force feeding is an acceptable practice," states APRL co-founder Bryan Pease, Esq. "For instance, the claim by NYU professor Marion Nestle in the Times article that there is video somewhere of ducks running to be force fed is not only absurd, but is verifiably false. In the era of YouTube and Google, anyone can search and see that such a video does not exist."

In 2003, Nestle received a "Food and Beverage Lifetime Achievement Award" from D'Artagnan, the distributor for Hudson Valley Foie Gras. D'Artagnan was later found by the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau to be making false and misleading claims about the animal care standards in foie gras production. Ariane Daguin, the head of D'Artagnan, then told New York Magazine "animals have no soul" as justification for force feeding. Nestle later appeared on a culinary panel with Daguin and other foie gras chefs.

James Bond actor Roger Moore narrated a video of APRL's animal cruelty investigations of this industry, which can be viewed at StopForceFeeding.com. The video includes force feeding and conditions at the two main U.S. foie gras producers. Photos of the filthy, crowded sheds both producers cram the ducks into during the three to four weeks of force feeding are also posted on the site.

SOURCE Animal Protection & Rescue League