On February 19, 2004, Sen. Pro-Tem John Burton introduced Senate Bill 1520, to prohibit the cruel force feeding of birds for foie gras. Foie gras is produced by force feeding ducks or geese enormous quanitities of food multiple times a day to grossly enlarge their livers. This process is extremely cruel, and many other nations have already banned this practice. California SB 1520 was referred to the Senate Business and Professions Committee. Celebrities Bea Arthur and Melissa Rivers joined Sen. Burton at the committee hearing, and their passionate words convinced the committee to pass the bill on May 5, by a vote of 4 to 3. Just a few days later, on May 18, the California State Senate voted in favor of this legislation.

The bill then began its journey through the Assembly, beginning again with the Business and Professions Committee. Again, the bill passed committee on June 23 by a vote of 9 to 4 and was sent to the floor of the Assembly. Almost exactly one month later, the entire Assembly also passed SB 1520, by an 18 vote margin. No bill to prevent cruel foie gras production had ever progressed this far in the United States!

Shortly after the bill successfully passed the legislature, SB 1520 was delivered to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had until the end of September to sign or veto the bill. Many thousands of people from across the United States, and even from other countries, contacted the governor urging him to sign this humane legislation into law. Numerous celebrities wrote letters to Schwarzenegger, encouraging him to act compassionately and support the bill, and hundreds of restaurants in California signed pledges not to serve foie gras because of its inherent cruelty.

Waiting until almost the last minute, Gov. Schwarzenegger heeded the wishes of his citizens, and signed Senate Bill 1520 into law on Wednesday, September 29, 2004. With this historic event, California has now become the first state in the U.S. to ban the force feeding of ducks and geese for foie gras. The success of SB 1520 is an important precedent and will create momentum to ban this cruelty across the entire United States.

To read the text of SB 1520, click here.

To read recent media articles about SB 1520, click here.

To read the committees analysis' of the bill, please click here and type "1520" by the Bill Number tab.

Sadly, the sale and production of foie gras is still legal in most of the United States. For more information about getting involved in the campaign against foie gras, please click here.

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