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| Mulard ducks |
Imagine a goose or a duck, both sentient beings like us, with
perceptions and feelings. Instead of
living normal lives, though, those creatures are fed and fed beyond their desire
and beyond capacity. Then they’re slaughtered
so their fattened livers can be served to humans as a special and pricey treat. What a life.
A so-called “delicacy of French cuisine,” foie gras (“fwa-gra”), or “fatty
liver,” is derived from the liver of a goose or duck that has been fattened by
a process of force-feeding known as gavage.
Through it, the bird consumes more food
than would be eaten in the wild or domestically; its liver can grow 6-10 times
its normal size and often the animal can’t even stand or walk.
Despite the fancy-sounding name, foie gras production is hideously
cruel -- still another example of how people use non-human animals for their
own purposes.
Those involved in
producing foie gras take advantage of some waterfowls’ ability “to expand their esophagus and to gain weight,
particularly in the liver, in preparation for migration. Unlike many
birds, geese and ducks lack a crop. In the wild, esophageal dilation allows them
to swallow large foodstuffs, such as a whole fish, for later digestion.”
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| Gavage c. Gaia |
Effective in
2022, New York City has banned foie gras as “inhumane” -- much to the dismay of
restaurants that serve it, people who eat it and owners and workers at two duck
farms in Sullivan County, NY, where most of the foie gras consumed in the US is
produced. Immigrants involved in foie
gras production there depend on their jobs and farm owners fear the worst once
they can no longer raise, force feed and slaughter the birds involved.
In this one
instance of animal cruelty, however, the times are changing. The practices behind
foie gras are losing support, and the workers’ and farmers’ wish to continue gavage
-- treating helpless sentient animals with gross cruelty -- will stop. As ways of thinking about animal welfare have
gradually changed (“finally,” some might say!) new ways of earning a living
will be needed.
This is much the
same situation as that facing Canadians who club baby seals to death for their
fur: some (great) day coming, they too will have to make a living some other
way.
As a point of
interest, foie gras is already banned in California, as well as India,
Israel and Britain. Even where it’s legal,
some retailers don’t stock it: Whole Foods stopped selling the product in 1997.
Phone the governor -- asap!
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| Beaver |
Depending on when you read this, there may still be time -- and it’s
worth the try! -- to phone Governor Murphy (609-292-6000) and urge him to veto
the dreadful “beaver trapping bill” (A2731/S3407)
now on his desk. He has till noon on Tuesday to decide whether
to serve the tiny number of beaver-trappers in NJ or to honor the many of us
who continue fighting the increase in trap numbers -- for good reasons.
Simply removing trapping limits will do absolutely nothing
to mitigate any problems caused by beavers.
Worse, trapping
beavers is horrifically cruel, with beavers often getting clamped in painful
traps and being left to drown to death.
Humane and environmental groups in NJ have worked with local
towns on beaver management with proven, non-lethal methods that are NOT harmful
to ecosystems and are humane. We should be addressing this issue in 2020
based on sound science, not 18th century methods. New Jersey needs a comprehensive beaver management plan.
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