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The sale and production of foie gras is illegal in California effective 2012 under Cal. Health and Safety Code section 25980. City councils have commended restaurants for removing this product of animal torture in the meantime, including San Diego, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Berkeley and Solana Beach.
Dr. Ward Stone, the senior wildlife pathologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, has conducted necropsies on ducks who died during force feeding at Hudson Valley Foie Gras and writes, "I eat meat including ducks on occassion. However, the short tortured lives of ducks raised for Foie Gras is well outside the norm of farm practice. Having seen the pathology that occurs from Foie Gras Production, I strongly recommend that this process be outlawed." You can read his reports here and here.
The Animal Protection & Rescue League has investigated all three US foie gras farms and several in France and found rampant cruelty to be the norm. Compassion Over Killing sent an investigator to HVFG on a guided tour with a hidden camera and also witnessed the standard cruelty that is required for foie gras production.
In November 2008, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 2 by 63%, banning intensive confinement cages for egg, veal and pork production. This was the most popular citizen's initiative in California history, showing that Californians believe that even animals raised for food deserve humane treatment.
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Here is what Michael Ginor, co-owner of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, had to say about his business to Mark Caro, author of the new book The Foie Gras Wars:
"I don't have the conviction in our righteousness the way my partner does," Ginor, a fellow Israeli, said over coffee a few days after Izzy's trip up to Kohler. (Ginor happened to be in Chicago for--believe it or not--Charlie Trotter's 20th anniversary weekend. Trotter had invited him personally, despite their public sparring.) So while Izzy took umbrage at Peter Sagal's defense of foie gras, Ginor sided with the writer: "I have to agree with that Saveur thing. I couldn't tell that any animal that's meant for slaughter is not suffering. I don't quite know how that's possible. I would think any animal that's economically grown suffers some. There's no question that the duck on day 28 of feeding is not as happy as a duck that hasn't been fed. But the question then does become: How does that duck feel compared to, let's say, a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy? I don't think there's ever a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy who's really psyched about that day."
Right, though having a baby is a happier and more voluntary outcome than what happens to the duck. [This is Caro, the author, speaking]
"To tell you that it's a 100-percent altruistic business that I have no issues with, no, I can't say that," Ginor continued. "It's funny, though, when I started, I never had a problem with it. When I came into foie gras, it was purely as a culinarian, not as a farmer. I had no knowledge of agriculture really. I just thought it was a great product that I would love to have and that others would love to have, and I came into it very, very excited. I knew there were issues or could be issues, and when Izzy showed me the process and explained to me, I felt like I was never 100-percent wholesome with it in the sense that I think you can't be 100-percent wholesome with it. But then I was convinced, I guess, that it's not different or worse than anything else out there that goes to feed human beings. That I kind of believed. But nevertheless, I see the issues. I understand the issues. I partially agree with the issues."
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