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What Is Foie Gras?
Foie gras literally means "fatty liver" in French. To produce it, young ducks or geese have over four pounds of corn mush forced down their throats through a long metal pipe each day for two to three weeks until they can barely move and are on the verge of organ rupture and death. For a 150 pound human, this would be equivalent to 60 pounds of food per day.
The force-feeding process causes the ducks' livers to swell up to ten times their normal size, inducing a disease that veterinarians call "hepatic lipidosis." These fattened, diseased livers are sold as "foie gras."
The Animal Protection & Rescue League has exposed the only three "foie gras" producers in the U.S. and helped investigate several in France. In Defense of Animals and APRL sued under California's Unfair Business Practices law to force the passage of SB 1520, which Gov. Schwarzenegger signed in 2004 to ban both the production and sale of foie gras in California by 2012. The two groups are now spearheading a nationwide awareness initiative, wherein volunteers are displaying poster-size photos of the tortured birds from the animal cruelty investigations. Dozens of restaurants have already removed the cruel product from their menus as a result.
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