In other words: the shoving of corn down the throat (literally in this case) of yet another animal so humans can consume more junk calories a little higher on the food chain.

For all of the comments mocking American meat in the comments above, any distinction seems trivial at best.

If mankind is so content on becoming even more obese eating unnecessary, excessively calorie dense foods, why does he need to exploit other animals to get there? Let’s leave the poor ducks alone and get to work on converting our corn surpluses more directly to a foie gras flavored twinkie if this stuff is so desirable.

While other forms of meat production may be worse in scope and perhaps even more worthy of continued criticism because of it, foie gras deserves its own status as an easy target for both criticism and legislation. Its egregiousness is hard to miss for the animal activist existing in more than just those who hold signs outside of restaurants.

In the UK the parliament has a fairly bizzare bunch of muddled worthies called MP’s but fortunately we also have something called the House of Lords, largely full of old buffers, who, thank goodness seem to exercise greater wisdom, gravity and balanced thinking than the johnnies in the other place.

Since you suggest the diet of this combined group of worthies is so meat ridden it proves that the more you eat the wiser you become. Dismiss the veggies I say !!

As far as the ethical debate… I think the notion of kindness is inappropriate when referring to the treatment of animals raised for food. I’d prefer they not suffer, but these are animals raised so that we can kill them and eat them. “Humane killers” sounds like an oxymoron.

Animal activism has improved the care and treatment of animals. But at the extreme, animal activism envisions a world where no one will ever hurt an animal. Animal activists need to keep those that deal with animals in line, and everyone else needs to keep animal activists in line.

If you take it to the extreme, either we have dog fighting or the police are knocking on my door because of reports that I used bug spray to kill the spiders in my basement. Either is absurd, but it’s up to each person to decide where to draw the line.

If you think forced feeding is not humane, stop eating foie gras. If you think killing animals is not humane, stop eating animals. If you think spiders deserve to live, invite them into your house. Otherwise, keep eating what you eat, doing what you do. In either case, drop the legislation. I’ve never eaten foie gras, as it’s not something that really appeals to me, but I want the right to make my own decision on whether or not to buy it.

I’d also like to say that my family raises cattle….which are currently out in pastures eating grass. I didn’t know that cows are kept in barns to have light meat, good grief. Sometimes it would be so much easier to be kept in the dark about these sort of things (no pun intended). When did food go from survival to vanity??

Last, I probably felt the need to post (I rarely do), because ironically a baby duck was sleeping on my lap as I read the blog. (We are raising the lone duck our hen hatched in the house, because something would have gotten him had he been left with the big ducks). He’s very tame, and I wouldn’t dream of treating him that way. And no, keeping a duck in the house isn’t natural, but I can guarantee he’s happy.

I have much less of a problem with those that are doing it on their own, for their family. It’s when animal production gets industrialized that things go all wrong.

I’m in Kansas fyi.

Your closing comment begs the definition of ‘Kindness and respect’. In view of the fact that all animals in a ‘Farm’ are living [for them] in an artificial and managed environment, does that mean it is unkind. If not, is feeding cows with grain in a shed kind, when they normally prefer to be grazing on grass outside especially when their guts are designed to eat grass, or keeping salmon or any farmed fish in water cages and fed an artificial diet kind when they normally would be swimming all over the place? Chickens being squashed in huge sheds with little fresh air or space to live and scratch around, cows kept in darkened barns as in Europe to ensure pale meat or geese being content [silly billies] to have another gorging from their captors.. the list goes on and strickly speaking they are all examples of ‘unkindness’.
If the foie gras drum is to be beaten, there must surely be a consistency of revulsion and containment of all other unkind and disrespectable practises.

As for God – You really think shoving a feeding tube down a duck’s neck is what God meant when he gave us “dominion” over animals??? Seriously??? Isn’t the duck God created good enough for us without the force feeding? Are you really telling me that this treatment is our God given right?? I think using God to justify it is just wrong.

I believe treating all animals with kindness and respect during their life is the best way to show thanks for them, even if we do eat them in the end.

1) The variety of duck used in FG production is a cross between a pekin and a muscovy. Unlike geese, muscovies do not migrate, and Pekins only do so sometimes. It’s a little disingenous to talk about what these ducks do in the wild, because they don’t exist in the wild, and if they did, it’s doubtful they would do much migrating.

2) Even when geese gorge themselves before migrating, they do not gorge themselves to anywhere near the extent forced upon them by gavage. In the former case, their livers may swell to 3 times their normal size; in the latter, up to 10 times their normal size.

3) While the tube down the throat is an unpleasant sight, the force feeding itself is not the biggest concern. What is more concerning is the fact that the bird’s liver becomes so large that it actually smooshes other organs, including the lungs, as well as the fact that liver function becomes extremely impaired. Since the liver is responsible for, among many other things, filtering out metabolic wastes and other toxins, a failing liver means that these wastes continue to circulate, making the poor bird feel quite sick.

Certainly, there are other animals who are being cruely treated in much larger numbers, but that doesn’t justify continued cruelty to ducks and geese for foie gras.