Points to consider making when writing or talking with restaurant owners and chefs:

• Chicago enacted an ordinance in April 2006 to ban the sale of foie gras within city limits.
• California banned cruel force-feeding in 2004, and legislation is now pending in other states.
• Ducks are force-fed enormous amounts of food several times a day as a pipe is shoved down their throats and food is pushed directly into their gullets.
• In 2-4 weeks, the ducks become grossly overweight and their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size.
• Many are so physically debilitated and in so much pain by the end of the force-feeding period that they are unable to stand or walk.
• Birds raised for foie gras suffer considerably when they are force-fed excessive amounts of food multiple times each day, and many die due to obesity, ruptured throats and internal organs, proliferation of bacteria in their digestive tracts, or asphyxiation when food becomes impacted in their throats and digestive systems.
• The birds cannot fly, walk, or even breathe normally, as their enlarged livers push against their other internal organs.
  • Veterinarians and pathologists have determined that the force-feeding process is inhumane.
    
  • Even representatives of the foie gras industry admit that the process would be fatal if it was allowed to continue.
    
  • No other farm animal production method involves the deliberate causation of disease to the point of fatality.
• Respectable restaurants do not need to serve foie gras. Many restaurants are successful without serving this cruel product.
• Consumers respect ethical businesses and the vast majority of customers do not support animal cruelty - many public opinion polls indicate this.
• A sophisticated clientele who appreciate fine dining would certainly not relish foie gras if they knew the barbarity involved in its production.
• Pledging not to serve foie gras will demonstrate that your business practices are consistent with your customers' expectations and ethical concerns.
• Foie gras production is so cruel that it has been outlawed by a number of European countries, including the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. In August 2003, Israel's Supreme Court also ruled that the practice violates the nation's animal cruelty laws.
• The California law SB 1520 was authored by Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, who took on the legislation because he felt that, "Cramming food down a duck's throat to make a gourmet item known as foie gras is not only unnecessary, it's inhumane."
  

* The Chicago ordinance to ban the sale of cruel foie gras was proposed by Alderman Joe Moore of the 49th Ward. "The public needs to be informed about the cruelty that birds must undergo," said Moore.

Click here for a Question & Answer document about the importance of fighting the foie gras industry