How Is Foie Gras Produced?
Two-to-five times a day for 14 to 28 consecutive days, workers at foie gras factory farms shove hard metal or plastic pipes down the throats and into the stomachs of ducks or geese, pumping into the birds’ stomachs a massive quantity of a nutritionally unbalanced corn mix. There is no other way to produce foie gras. This repeated force-feeding destroys the birds’ metabolism, turning their normal three-ounce, deep mahogany-colored livers into 1.5-pound pale beige masses. In their last days, the birds suffer visibly. Many can barely move and have trouble breathing. Some die before their scheduled slaughter from the devastating effects of repeated force-feeding. Workers break surviving birds’ necks and cut them open to remove their grotesquely enlarged livers. Foie gras companies sell the fatty livers to restaurants, gourmet stores, and distributors. What Do the Experts Say? A large number of veterinarians licensed in New York State, where most U.S. foie gras is produced, signed a stateme
