Murder most fowl. How much cruelty can you swallow?

Ok, I'll stop with the puns.

Foie gras. Fatty liver. Or the Delicacy of Despair.

Firstly, why would anyone want to eat liver? It tastes feral, crumbles into powder in your mouth, and… did I mention it tastes disgusting?

Secondly, eating duck or goose liver that has been specially fattened by force?

Here’s how it’s manufactured:

The 8-10 inch steel pipe of the feeding machine is attached by a long hose to a hydraulic machine. This machine shoots several pounds of food directly into the stomachs of the birds in just a few seconds.




A farm worker force-feeds the birds by shoving the steel pipe down the birds' esophagus, up to 3 times a day.




80% of birds used in foie gras production are kept in tiny, box-like cages.





Force-fed birds with engorged livers have difficulty balancing, and every step is a struggle.




Rough handling during the force-feeding process results in bloodied birds, many of them with broken bills.




Birds who die from being force-fed are dumped in bins. Common causes of death includes burst stomachs, choking on their own vomit and aspiration pneumonia where the food is accidentally forced into the birds' lungs.


In a Foie Gras factory in New York, workers receive a “special bonus” if they caused fewer than 50 burst stomachs a month.

In that same factory, spy video cameras recorded ducks trying to "walk" using their wings because their legs had given out.


Liver on the right has been fattened by force to make foie gras, as compared to the size of a normal duck liver.

Here are some defensive comments made by Foie Gras manufacturers, when questioned about the inhuman methods of production:

Force-feeding mimics natural gorging of birds before migration.
FACT: Ducks used in foie gras production are of a species that does not migrate. No duck in the wild would ever consume as much food as these ducks are forced to consume in a day, let alone for two to three weeks.

Force-feeding does not injure the birds because they have hardened esophagi.
FACT: Ducks or geese do not have hardened esophagi. And there are no records of these animals ever evolving to adapt to these cruel methods.

Ducks enjoy being force fed because they run to the feeders.
FACT: This is the most offensive of the many lies appearing in Michael Ginor's book, "Foie Gras, a Passion." There is simply not a grain of truth in this statement, and it is all the more offensive since Ginor keeps most of the ducks at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in isolation cages so they can't move anyway.


We have so many choices of food to choose from. Why create a demand for food that has been produced so cruelly?

And liver? Euw, gross.