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Foie Gras & Animal Rights
Ethical Discussion on Foie Gras
In recent years
there has been a lot of discussion on the ethics of foie gras
production, with considerable activity by animal rights
organisations. This has led to a number of countries (and part
of the USA) passing laws to ban foie gras.
This ethical
debate is focused on two elements of foie gras production:
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The forced
feeding of the duck or goose, in order for it to develop a
fatty liver.
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The health
implications of the bird having a fatty liver
If you search
the internet, you will find hundreds of sites which are arguing
for or against foie gras, depending on whether they consider
these two aspects to be an issue or not. I won't try to
reproduce the arguments here as they are quite lengthy. However,
I will offer my view.
Health
implications of fatty liver
I personally
believe that the health implications of the fatty liver are not
very important. The fatty liver is developed during the period
of forced feeding, which lasts only 2 to 3 weeks. After this
period, the bird is immediately slaughtered; as the bird is then
dead, I cannot see how the health implications are relevant. I
have not seen any evidence that the fatty liver itself causes
any significant distress to the animal. In fact, in the wild
these birds eat large amounts immediately prior to migration,
naturally producing a foie gras liver (although not as extreme
as in the force fed version). These wild birds rely on this
stored fat during the migration period, when they have a high
level of physical exertion and limited time to eat.
Consequently, during the migration this stored fat is burnt off
and the birds liver returns to its normal state. Of course, in
the case of farm animals which are force fed to produce foie
gras, they are slaughtered after the period of feeding, so their
livers never get the chance to reduce in fat content.
I would also
note that a similar condition exists in obese people, with an
increasing number of the human population exhibiting the same
medical conditions as the foie gras birds. While they may find
their general obesity unpleasant, they suffer no particular
distress from their own fatty livers.
Forced
feeding
I have some
sympathy with the animal rights groups opposing the forced
feeding. It is certain that this is somewhat unpleasant and
distressing for the birds.
Farmers will
point out that this lasts only a few moments, a few times a day.
They will also argue that the distress suffered by the birds is
small and brief. Animal rights groups counter by arguing that
the distress is not minor and we have no right to do this.
I can see the
arguments on both sides. In fact, I once stopped eating foie
gras for two years because of my personal concerns about this. I
also stopped eating turkey (because of extreme breeding
producing deformed birds that suffer) and chicken (due to the
terrible conditions of battery chicken). As I learned more about
the modern food industry, I got closer and closer to becoming a
vegetarian.
In the end, I
decided to return to meat eating, but to avoid what I consider
the worst offenders. So, for example, I eat only free range
chickens. In terms of foie gras, I think that the life of these
birds (even with the 2-3 week feeding period at the end) is
overall better than that of most farm animals, and I've resumed
eating foie gras. However, I fully understand those who choose
not to.
Additional
information
For more
information about various aspects of foie gras, click
Foie Gras Home.
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