Photo by In Defense of Animals
Last week, Voters For Animal Rights, the leading organization behind the New York City bill to ban the sale of foie gras, filed suit against D’Artagnan regarding the deceptive marketing and advertising of foie gras products as humane, despite the objectively inhumane practices utilized in raising and slaughtering the ducks used in D’Artagnan’s products
“The ducks used for D’Artagnan’s foie gras products are routinely force-fed in an inhumane manner that causes extreme suffering, pain, and disease; and raised, fed, handled, and slaughtered in inhumane, crowded, and stressful conditions of confinement that prevent the expression of their natural behaviors,” said Matthew Dominguez, Political Advisor for Voters for Animal Rights. “D’Artagnan is profiting off of misleading the public, their humane-washing is a key part of their deceptive strategy to keep this cruel industry alive.”
Last week, the New York City Council passed a landmark package of animal protection measures and now heads to Mayor de Blasio for consideration. The seven bills and four resolutions protect a wide range of animals and further demonstrates the Council’s unparalleled commitment and leadership on animal rights. The passage was celebrated by hundreds of New Yorkers who waited hours outside City Hall to show their support for these measures.
“We’re grateful to Speaker Corey Johnson for spearheading this landmark package of animal protection measures through the City Council and thankful to all the sponsors who’ve championed their individual measures through this process,” said Allie Feldman Taylor, President of Voters for Animal Rights. “By passing this landmark package, New York City has proven itself to be a leader on animal rights issues and we look forward to Mayor de Blasio signing all these measures into law.”
Among the near dozen measures passed, the bill prohibiting the sale of force-fed foie gras—championed by Council Member Carlina Rivera—is one of the most important animal rights bills passed by any city in the country. Foie gras —French for “fatty liver”—is a gruesome “luxury” food product made from the diseased and enlarged liver of a duck produced through force-feeding. Ducks in the foie gras industry suffer immensely from ruptured organs, esophagus trauma, broken bones, illnesses, and diseases as a result of having a foot-long metal or plastic pipe shoved down their throats and a large mass of food injected into their delicate digestive system several times a day for weeks on end. The sole purpose of this force-feeding is to swell and disease the bird’s liver to ten times its normal size so it can be sold as foie gras.
“We’re beyond grateful to Council Member Carlina Rivera for sponsoring a bill that will ban the sale of one of the cruelest food items on the planet: force-fed foie gras,” said Matthew Dominguez, Political Advisor for Voters for Animal Rights. “We applaud the City Council and Speaker Johnson for standing on the right side of history by taking a historic step in relegating the barbaric practice of force-feeding innocent ducks for foie gras to the history books.”
The force-fed foie gras sales ban has more support than any other bill in the package, including a coalition of over 50 not-for-profit organizations—led by Voters for Animal Rights—, 50 NY-based veterinarians—including the Humane Society Veterinarian Association, a national organization of more than 9,000 veterinary professional members—, 30 co-sponsors, over 90 NYC based restaurants, and 81% of New York City voters, according to a Mason Dixon poll.
More facts on force-fed foie gras and information on the passing of Bill 1378 can be found HERE!
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