Ducks and Geese Used for Foie Gras

Ducks and geese often die from being force-fed up to 4 pounds of grain per day. Other Viewing Options Download Video Embed code to post this video on your MySpace page or blog.

Foie gras is one of the most sickening examples of humans' using cruelty to get “luxury.” The term “foie gras” literally means “fatty liver.” It is the bloated liver of male ducks and geese who are force-fed enormous quantities of food until their livers expand well beyond their normal size. Workers ram pipes down the birds' throats two or three times a day and pump as much as 4 pounds of grain and fat into the animals' stomachs while the birds desperately struggle to get away.^5,6,7 The pipes puncture many birds' throats, sometimes causing them to bleed to death or suffer painful wounds. On some farms, a single worker may be expected to force-feed 500 birds three times each day.⁸ Because of this rush, animals are often treated roughly and left injured and suffering.

Many birds have difficulty standing because of their engorged livers, and they may tear out their own feathers and cannibalize each other because of stress.⁹ Undercover video footage taken at Sonoma Foie Gras shows rats eating the flesh of live ducks who are too bloated and crippled to defend themselves.

This torture lasts 12 to 21 days and causes the birds' livers to bloat until they are up to 10 times their normal size.¹⁰ Because of the injuries and disease caused by force-feeding, the death rates on foie gras farms are between 10 and 25 times higher than the mortality rates on other duck and geese farms, and carcasses of animals from these farms show wing fractures and severe tissue damage to the throat muscles.^11,12

Force-feeding ducks and geese is illegal in several countries.

The practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to produce foie gras is undeniably cruel. A 1996 report by Belgian veterinarians states, “There is absolutely no doubt that force-feeding subjects them to physiological and behavioral suffering which dramatically reduces their well-being.” The report further concludes that “force feeding constitutes a reprehensible practice from an ethical point of view.”¹³

Foie gras is so inhumane that in 2004, the state of California banned the production and sale of products made by force-feeding animals.¹⁴ The practice has also been outlawed in the U.K., Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.¹⁵

Read more about this cruel industry.

You Can Help

If you visit a restaurant that serves foie gras, please speak with the manager and politely tell him or her about the cruelty behind this “delicacy.” with the name and address of the restaurant's manager, and we will send him or her a video and more information. We would also be happy to send you leaflets to hand out to customers outside the restaurant if the owner refuses to take foie gras off the menu.

Read more about how you can help ducks, geese, and other farmed animals.

---

⁵Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare, “Welfare Aspects of the Production of Foie Gras in Ducks and Geese,” 16 Dec. 1998.
⁶Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, “Production de Foie Gras, Gavage et Bien-être,” 2004.
⁷D. Guémené et al., “Force-Feeding Procedure and Physiological Indicators of Stress in Male Mule Ducks,” British Poultry Science 42(5) (2001): 651.
⁸World Animal Foundation, “Foie Gras,” 2005.
⁹Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare.
¹⁰Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare.
¹¹Farm Sanctuary, “The Welfare of Ducks and Geese in Foie Gras Production: A Summary of the Scientific and Empirical Evidence,” 2004.
¹²Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare.
¹³Farm Sanctuary.
¹⁴Styles.
¹⁵Animal Protection & Rescue League and In Defense of Animals, “Stop Force Feeding,”.