Pam F.
Here is a NEW petition against foie gras!
http://www.mindfully.org/Food/2003/Laurent-Manrique-Foie-Gras19aug03.htm
A top San Francisco chef has become the target of radical animal-rights activists in a series of attacks that police are calling domestic terrorism. Aqua chef Laurent Manrique has been the victim of vandals who spray-painted his home and splashed his car with acid, and he has received threatening letters and videotapes. It's part of what police say may be a national campaign aimed at those who produce a signature ingredient of French haute cuisine -- foie gras -- and the chefs who use it. Foie gras -- fattened goose or duck liver -- has become controversial because of the way it is produced, which involves force-feeding fowl. How much the animals suffer -- or whether they suffer at all -- has been the subject of much debate. The worst damage came last week when vandals broke into the new foie gras specialty store and restaurant that Manrique and his partners had planned to open next month in a historic adobe building on the Sonoma Plaza. Called Sonoma Saveurs, it will offer various foie gras preparations plus wine, cheese and other local products. Vandals plugged new plumbing with chunks of cement, spray-painted the walls and appliances, and turned on the water, according to police. The resulting flood forced two neighboring stores to shut down, with little hope of reopening until next week at the earliest, said property manager Lori Bremner. She said the adobe in the building, built in 1842, should dry out, but the damage to the new shop and the loss of business to the neighbors could send the total tab close to $50,000. "One would think people who wish to honor animals would not wish to damage history," Bremner said. Sonoma Police Chief John Gurney said his department is coordinating with other local police departments and the FBI. He calls the case "domestic terrorism." "It's because of the nature of the crime and the fact that they are trying to impact the freedom of citizens here and intimidate them to change their course of business," he said. "That happens to be illegal." The attacks began last month when vandals sprayed red paint on Manrique's Mill Valley home and on the Santa Rosa home of Didier Jaubert, a partner in the foie gras venture. Attackers also put acid-based etching foam on their cars and windows, and glued shut locks and garage doors. The Bite Back Web magazine says that etched on Manrique's car windows was "foie gras is animal torture" and "murderer." A sacred Buddha statue in Manrique's yard was also damaged. Manrique, the French-born chef of San Francisco's famed Aqua restaurant, is a practicing Buddhist. The perpetrators left a videotape, which Manrique said was shot from his garden and showed his family relaxing inside their home. It was accompanied by a letter warning that they were being watched. "I freaked out, and my wife started to panic," he said. Then came threatening letters that warned the men to "stop or be stopped," said Jaubert. Police Chief Gurney declined to say whether there were any suspects but called the attackers sophisticated and relentless. The attacks have been documented on the Bite Back Web magazine, and Manrique and Jaubert say they are scared because their home addresses have been posted on the Internet. "What are they going to do next?" Manrique asked. "Are they going to go after me?" Foie gras has long been a staple of French cooking and is a favorite ingredient among high-end chefs. It is created when ducks or geese are force- fed grain through tubes that are put down the birds' throats. The liver-fattening method was invented by the Egyptians and perfected by French grandmothers, Manrique said. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have a national campaign against the nation's three foie gras producers. That includes the California operation, in which Jaubert and Manrique are working with Guillermo Gonzalez and his company, Sonoma Foie Gras, to create a new, hand-crafted line of liver. The two other producers are located in the Hudson Valley region of New York State. Cem Akin of Santa Cruz, a research associate with PETA, denied that his group is involved with the foie gras violence in the Bay Area, but he called foie gras "one of the most egregiously cruel food products out there." But Jaubert and Manrique say the ducks, which are raised and processed on an old walnut farm near Stockton, are not caged, have ample water and shade, and aren't stressed. The company processes about 1,200 ducks a week. Because of his love of foie gras, Manrique is no stranger to animal rights protests. He was the focus of pickets and an Internet campaign when he was chef at Campton Place in San Francisco and, before that, at the Waldorf- Astoria in New York. But none of the previous protests were violent. Although the vandalism has pushed back the scheduled opening of the Sonoma shop, the partners have no plans to stop. "We are going to keep going. We cannot see their point," said Jaubert. "These people, they have a cause, of course. We don't deny this. But we are very disturbed by the way they are acting and the methods they are using. We don't think this is acceptable." Says Manrique, who was born and raised in the foie gras region of France, "Welcome to America, the country of free speech, eh?"
The New York Times
April 26, 2006
CHICAGO - The City Council voted Wednesday to make Chicago the first city in the country to outlaw the sale of foie gras, the fatty livers of geese and ducks that many consider a delicacy but animal rights advocates describe as a product of inhumane treatment.
The ban, adopted on a vote of 48 to 1, makes "food dispensing establishments" - restaurants and retail stores - subject to a fine of $500 for selling foie gras. The ordinance, which takes effect in 90 days, will be enforced by means of citizen complaints, said Joe Moore, the alderman who sponsored it.
Foie gras is produced by force-feeding grain to ducks and geese several times a day through a pipe inserted into their throats, causing their livers to expand. California enacted a law in 2004 that will end the production and sale of foie gras there in 2012, and similar legislation has been proposed in a handful of other states.
Click here to read the complete article.
No one has posted anything yet about this and when I tried posting something about it earlier, it didn't turn out too well. So I just wanted to let all of you know about the good news! Chicago has banned foie gras!!This is a huge victory and I was so happy to read about it a couple weeks ago!!
The efforts of animal advocates to educate people about the inherent violence of force-feeding fowl for their engorged livers is paying off as restaurants around the world continue to drop foie gras from their menus. Most recently, three restaurants in Stockholm, Sweden stopped serving foie gras after activists provided them with brochures and videos produced by IDA. On behalf of everyone who cares about the happiness of ducks and geese, IDA thanks Operakallaren, Amaranten and Villa Brevik for taking compassionate action that will greatly reduce the number of animals killed for foie gras.
The restaurants' decision also prompted Sweden's biggest hotel and restaurant trade journal to publish an article that explores the positive public response restaurateurs experience when they give foie gras the old heave-ho. In the article, head chefs at the restaurants explain why foie gras shouldn't be a part of 21st century dining. Swedish activist Daniel Rolke is hopeful for the future because he believes more restaurants will scrap foie gras after hearing about it straight from their respected colleagues.
Foie gras production has already been banned in many countries, including Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Austria, Israel and the U.K. California became the first U.S.
state to pass legislation outlawing it in 2004, and other states are
considering similar bans. If activists keep up the good work, Sweden could be next to join the ranks of countries that legally protect ducks and geese from the torture of force-feeding.
What You Can Do:
http://www.stopforcefeeding.com/page.php?module=press_release&article_id=259
Everything to do with Foie Gras!! Please post here...
Foie gras (translated literally from French as "fatty liver") is produced by cruel and inhumane farming practices. At just a few months old, ducks are confined inside dark sheds and force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day. A farm worker grabs each duck and, one by one, thrusts a metal pipe down their throats as a mechanized pump shoots a mixture of corn directly into their gullets. In just a matter of weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.
As a result, ducks raised for foie gras have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing. Many of them die before the end of the force-feeding cycle, and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry. Necropsies performed on foie gras ducks have shown extreme obesity, impaction of undigested food in the esophagus, lacerations in the throat, and a proliferation of bacterial and fungal growth in their upper digestive tracts.
Scientific research on foie gras ducks has shown, among other things, that "because normal liver function is seriously impaired in birds with the hypertrophied liver which occurs at the end of force feeding, the level of steatosis should be considered pathological" and that "it is clear that steatosis and other effects of force feeding are lethal when the procedures are continued."
(Information from: http://www.nofoiegras.org/)
