Foie Gras Production in New York: Your Questions Answered |
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June 26, 2007
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©GourmetCruelty.com |
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This force-fed duck died at New York's Hudson Valley Foie Gras. |
New York is home to two of the three remaining U.S. foie gras producers. The HSUS has filed suit to block foie gras production in New York and legislation (S.B. 1463/A.B. 6277) has been introduced to eliminate force-feeding of birds to produce foie gras.
Q: New York has strong animal protection laws; aren't they enough to protect all animals in the state?
A: Force-feeding ducks and geese through a pipe thrust down their throats merely for the sake of a so-called delicacy is clearly unnecessary, clearly inhumane, and, in New York, illegal. But New York has decided to ignore its own state laws that undeniably prohibit foie gras production—both the cruelty that it entails and the production process that requires intentionally inducing liver disease in the animals.
Q: Has the American Veterinary Medical Association determined that foie gras production in New York is humane?
A: No.
Despite the misinformation disseminated by New York's Department of Agriculture and Markets, the American Veterinary Medical Association has never found foie gras production to be humane.
While it is true that the AVMA recently declined to oppose or support foie gras production—that is, remained neutral on the topic—its silence does not mean the specific agribusiness practice in question is humane. For example, consistent with its recent decision not to prioritize animal welfare over animal use, the AVMA waited until the majority of the egg production industry voluntarily stopped the practice of forced molting through starvation before opposing it.
Further, one of the AVMA delegates to visit New York's factory farms stated that the production process results in diseased animals—something prohibited by New York law. And recent commentary in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association notes that foie gras production results in "pathologic hepatomegaly, increased mortality, and cohort of comorbid diseases."
Q: Have scientific studies shown that foie gras production is not harmful to animals?
A: No. The most comprehensive study ever undertaken on foie gras production was completed in 1998 by the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, an independent council providing expert scientific analysis to the European Commission. After exhaustive review of all available and up-to-date literature, SCAHAW determined that current foie gras production methods were per se "pathological" and "detrimental to the welfare of the birds." The 93-page report cites more than 100 scientific sources.
The committee identified many potential problems with the ingestion of large quantities of food, the force-feeding procedure itself and the housing conditions for ducks and geese in foie gras production. Harm to the animals may include:
- impaired liver function
- difficulty in locomotion due to the expanding abdomen (caused by the increase in liver size)
- high mortality likely caused by physical injury
- heat stress and liver failure
- risk of damage to the stretched tissue of the esophagus
- lesions to the sternum
- bone fractures
- foot injuries
- deprivation of important natural behaviors such as normal feeding and foraging activities, swimming and social behavior
A New York official recently pointed to one particular article in the World's Poultry Science Journal, touting it as scientific evidence that force-feeding does not cause physical trauma to the birds. This official claimed that the cited paper evaluated the force-feeding procedure in an objective manner using scientific methods. The statements made in his letter are highly inaccurate on several grounds. First, the article cited is simply a review paper and does not evaluate the force-feeding procedure on an experimental basis as claimed; the paper contains no experimental data and no statistical analysis as would be expected in an original research report.
The New York official's broad claim that foie gras production is not harmful to animals is not supported by the available scientific research on the subject. In fact, such a claim contradicts the extensive work of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, discussed above.
Finally, while the article was certainly slanted in favor of foie gras production, this is not surprising in light of the fact that the authors' study of foie gras production has been funded by the French foie gras producers' trade association, which is eager to defend the lucrative practice. For a more accurate discussion of the science of foie gras production, see An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Foie Gras Industry.
Q: Do foie gras producers in New York ensure the health and humane treatment of their animals?
A: No. As previously mentioned, the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare found that some of the causes of the exceptionally high mortality rate (10- to 20-percent higher than normal) of force-fed birds are likely to include physical injury and liver failure. Consistent with this, almost a dozen veterinary examinations of birds actually force-fed at New York's foie gras facilities have shown birds with liver disease, pneumonia, secondary infections, and other serious illnesses.
Dr. Ward Stone, New York State Wildlife Pathologist employed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has examined birds from New York foie gras factory farms several times. Based on his examinations, Dr. Stone has publicly condemned the practice.
Recently, more than 1,600 licensed veterinarians adopted a statement asserting that birds used in foie gras production generally "show lesions, including but not limited to: hepatic lipidosis; esophageal trauma secondary to insertion of the feeding pipes (granulomas, fungal and bacterial infections, ruptured esophagi); also fractured limbs, crop impaction, aspiration pneumonia, and ruptured livers."
The available evidence shows that foie gras production in New York is cruel and results in severely ill animals.
Q: Is it true that the New York Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets does not have jurisdiction over animal cruelty issues?
A: Yes. However, the Agriculture and Markets Commissioner does have jurisdiction over animal health issues and is obligated to halt foie gras production under that authority. Further, Governor Spitzer has jurisdiction over cruelty issues yet allows influential factory farmers in the state to violate state cruelty law.
Q: Should I be worried that my own state officials are willing to disregard state laws and mislead me?
A: We should all be concerned.
Officials in New York who are disseminating misleading information about foie gras production are doing so using your tax dollars. In fact, they recently granted almost $500,000 of your tax dollars to wealthy foie gras producers. It's bad enough that these officials ignore state law under pressure from a small but influential factory farm lobby, but to gouge taxpayers and attempt to mislead them is really too much.
Please tell Governor Spitzer and the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets that allowing cruel—and illegal—activity to continue is unacceptable. Tell him that their inaction is only made worse by their tax dollar giveaway to the very industry that is blatantly flouting state law. The suffering caused by force-feeding and New York officials' support for the foie gras industry are simply too much for any compassionate individual to swallow.
See the Video
Forced Feeding at Hudson Valley
Foie Gras
Related Links
Foie Gras
Force-Fed Abuse
An HSUS Report: The Welfare of Animals in the Foie Gras Industry
