Legal
Action Filed in New York to Ban Foie Gras!
Due
to New York being the largest foie gras-producing state in the country,
The Humane Society of the United States and Farm Sanctuary, along with
the Government Accountability Project's Food Safety Program and the New
York State Humane Association, filed a formal action with the New York
State Department of Agriculture and Markets. The sixteen-page petition,
submitted on June 21, 2006, asks that foie gras be declared an adulterated
food product based on an extensive scientific investigation into how the
diseased livers are produced.
Food
safety regulations under New York State law require diseased meat and
animal products to be condemned, but foie gras facilities, unlike many
food animal production systems, intentionally create sick ducks with the
purpose of selling their diseased livers for human consumption. The New
York Agriculture and Markets Law prohibits farmers from marketing diseased
animals or their organs to ensure wholesome food for consumers and to
encourage proper care for animals. These laws require animals raised for
food to be healthy. However, foie gras (pronounced 'fwah grah') means
'fatty liver' in French and is literally a degenerative disease called
hepatic lipidosis (also called hepatic steatosis) which destroys liver
function, eventually killing the animal. This grueling condition is purposefully
induced by foie gras facilities, such as Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale,
New York, who profit from these grossly enlarged and abnormal livers.
The evidence provided in the legal action consists of more than 900 documented pages, including statements from leading avian veterinarians and a New York state wildlife pathologist, necropsy reports, sworn testimony from numerous eyewitnesses, scientific literature on force-feeding and foie gras production, and laboratory examinations of New York-based foie gras products. The coalition of petitioners has asked the state to ban foie gras under a long-standing state law that makes it illegal to produce food from diseased animals. Experts explain in the petition how the production of foie gras destroys the ducks' livers, results in high fatality of the animals and leaves ducks suffering, near death, from blood toxicity, nerve damage, suffocation, and other serious complications which should require veterinary care. Video footage of dead and dying animals at New York-based foie gras production facilities confirms these statements. Click Here for photos of Hudson Valley Foie Gras, October, 2005.
Patrick Hooker from the NYS Dept of Agriculture and Markets, and former Farm Bureau lobbyist, is telling New York residents that foie gras production is humane. Click here to read Farm Sanctuary’s letter to him in response.
Media
In New Lawsuit, Activists Seek Ban On Production of Foie Gras in N.Y.
November 16, 2006New York animal welfare groups push for ban on foie gras
November 15, 2006Animal Rights Groups Ask New York to Ban Foie Gras
June 22, 2006
Humane Society seeks foie gras production ban
June 21, 2006Humane Society of the United States Files Action to Have Foie Gras Banned as an Adulterated Food
June 21, 2006
Click Here
for ways you can help the No Foie Gras Campaign.
