The Truth About Foie Gras
A number of us enjoy eating foie gras. But after knowing the cruelty these ducks suffer to produce a fatty liver, do you think it's still worth it to promote the foie gras industry?
The methods used to turn duck and goose livers into the "delicacy" known as pate de foie gras are anything but delicate.
Foie gras is a French term meaning "fatty liver" and it is produced by force-feeding birds. The ducks and geese force-fed for foie gras are compelled to consume much more high-energy food-mostly corn-than they would eat voluntarily. This damages their liver and often kills them. Birds are force-fed tremendous amounts of feed via a 12- to 16-inch plastic or metal tube, which is shoved down their throats and attached to a pressurized pump. The force-feeding may be performed twice daily for up to two weeks for ducks and three to four times daily, for up to 28 days for geese.
Force-feeding results in accumulated scar tissue in the esophagus. In addition, force feeding also results to the enlargement of the liver. The geese's liver can be enlarged to as much as 12 times its normal size. Increased liver size forces the abdomen to expand, which makes moving difficult and painful. An enlarged abdomen increases the risk of damage to the stretched tissue of the lower part of the esophagus. The liver can also be easily damaged even by minor trauma.
Many of the forced fed ducks were unable to walk or even stand, their bills showed deformities. Their eyes were also dull and their feathers were unkempt. Only severely stressed or ill ducks allow their plumage to deteriorate.
Necropsies taken of the dead birds revealed many painful conditions: The force-fed birds had chronic heart disorders; ruptured liver cell membranes; cirrhosis; traumatic esophagitis; and lesions in their gizzards and intestines. Dead birds were also found with food filling their esophagi and spilling out of their nostrils.
I used to like eating foie gras, but after reading about the cruelties these ducks are subjected to, I would feel really guilty eating foie gras again. You may probably argue that pigs, cows and sheep are also slaughtered before they end up on our plates. But this is different. These birds suffer a slow death. Eating foie gras is not good for us anyway.
Foie gras and de fois gras can make people fat and sick like the unfortunate birds tortured to produce it. Foie gras gets 85 percent of its calories from fat--more than twice as much as a hamburger! The fat is mostly palmitic acid, a saturated fat known to increase cholesterol.
The methods used to turn duck and goose livers into the "delicacy" known as pate de foie gras are anything but delicate.
Foie gras is a French term meaning "fatty liver" and it is produced by force-feeding birds. The ducks and geese force-fed for foie gras are compelled to consume much more high-energy food-mostly corn-than they would eat voluntarily. This damages their liver and often kills them. Birds are force-fed tremendous amounts of feed via a 12- to 16-inch plastic or metal tube, which is shoved down their throats and attached to a pressurized pump. The force-feeding may be performed twice daily for up to two weeks for ducks and three to four times daily, for up to 28 days for geese.
Force-feeding results in accumulated scar tissue in the esophagus. In addition, force feeding also results to the enlargement of the liver. The geese's liver can be enlarged to as much as 12 times its normal size. Increased liver size forces the abdomen to expand, which makes moving difficult and painful. An enlarged abdomen increases the risk of damage to the stretched tissue of the lower part of the esophagus. The liver can also be easily damaged even by minor trauma.
Many of the forced fed ducks were unable to walk or even stand, their bills showed deformities. Their eyes were also dull and their feathers were unkempt. Only severely stressed or ill ducks allow their plumage to deteriorate.
Necropsies taken of the dead birds revealed many painful conditions: The force-fed birds had chronic heart disorders; ruptured liver cell membranes; cirrhosis; traumatic esophagitis; and lesions in their gizzards and intestines. Dead birds were also found with food filling their esophagi and spilling out of their nostrils.
I used to like eating foie gras, but after reading about the cruelties these ducks are subjected to, I would feel really guilty eating foie gras again. You may probably argue that pigs, cows and sheep are also slaughtered before they end up on our plates. But this is different. These birds suffer a slow death. Eating foie gras is not good for us anyway.
Foie gras and de fois gras can make people fat and sick like the unfortunate birds tortured to produce it. Foie gras gets 85 percent of its calories from fat--more than twice as much as a hamburger! The fat is mostly palmitic acid, a saturated fat known to increase cholesterol.
posted by charlotte marie at 3:06 PM
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