Fwd: Times Herald Record op-ed: New York should ban, not subsidize, foie gras

July 3, 2006

See Paul Shapiro's article below. And New Yorkers, when the time comes, PLEASE SUPPORT A. 7876 and S. 2083, "bills that would prohibit force-feeding birds for the purpose of fatty enlargement of their livers." JOT those bills down! --------------- Paul Shapiro <pshapiro wrote: Times Herald Record op-ed: "New York should ban, not subsidize, foie gras"Mon, 3 Jul 2006 08:54:36 -0400"Paul Shapiro" <pshapiro http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/07/03/opinion-3views-07-03.html July 03, 2006 New York should ban, not subsidize, foie gras By Paul Shapiro Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is one of the most notorious animal products on the market today, primarily because of the extreme cruelty necessary to produce it. Everyone from

the pope to the Israeli Supreme Court to Pat Buchanan has criticized it. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has expressed serious concern about its production. More than a dozen nations and the State of California have banned its production. And now the city of Chicago has banned its sale. Yet despite widespread opposition to foie gras, New York has now decided to subsidize its production at a plant in Ferndale to the tune of $420,000, straight from taxpayers' wallets. This is in spite of the fact that according to the grant beneficiary's own records, it has committed more than 900 violations of state and federal clean water laws. Factory farmers produce foie gras by intensively confining ducks and geese and, multiple times each day, forcing a pipe down their throats in order to deliver substantially more food than the birds would voluntarily consume. Insertion of the tubing can cause painful

bruising, lesions and even perforations of the esophagus. The massive intake of this unnatural amount of food causes the liver to swell up to 10 times its normal size. In other words, factory farmers deliberately induce a disease in order to produce this so-called "delicacy." Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to animal cruelty, and that concern doesn't lie only with the dogs and cats we welcome into our homes. It extends to farm animals, particularly those who are abused for a product as trivial as foie gras. An October 2003 Zogby International poll showed that 82 percent of Americans believe there should be effective laws that protect farm animals against cruelty and abuse, and a 2004 Zogby poll indicated that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe that force-feeding ducks and geese for foie gras should be banned. While describing the effects of force-feeding birds, poultry

welfare expert Dr. Ian Duncan stated, "In my view it is completely unethical to deliberately promote a diseased state in an animal. The birds' obesity will lead to myriad other problems from skeletal disorders to difficulties in coping with heat stress and all of which are accompanied by feelings of malaise." California has already legislated against both the production and sale of foie gras, and now New York's state legislators have a chance to do the same. Pending before the Legislature are A. 7876 and S. 2083, bills that would prohibit force-feeding birds for the purpose of fatty enlargement of their livers. With New York ranking as the top foie gras-producing state in the nation, passing a ban on force-feeding is a critical step to take in order to end this barbaric practice in the United States. Rather than subsidizing cruelty with nearly half a million taxpayer dollars, New York should ban this cruel and

inhumane factory farming practice. The time is long overdue to offer the hundreds of thousands of birds used for foie gras in New York the most basic legal protection from some of the worst mistreatment in animal agribusiness. Forcing animals to endure such extreme cruelty for something so trivial should be a source of shame for us. Mere common decency requires that we put an end to this abuse of animals who are utterly at our mercy. Paul Shapiro is the director of the Factory Farming Campaign of the Humane Society of the United States, www.hsus.org. Top Copyright Orange County Publications, a division of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., all rights reserved. Interested in taking action online to help animals? Then join our online community and sign up for our Humane Action Network. Go to www.hsus.org/join . I encourage everyone to join to post or crosspost messages. Everyone needs to take on a share of the work. I have a list of dog, wildlife, vegan, and animal rights groups...just ask.

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