December 16, 2005

What Cruelty is this..


Showing an actual photo of a dead duck with her feathers and kin worn away to the flesh, next to the tagline "Ducks Die Like This to Make Foie Gras," PETA's anti-foie gras billboard asks consumers to spurn cruelty to ducks. The ad comes in the wake of investigations into both Sonoma Foie Gras in California and Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York by GourmetCruelty.com and the Animal Protection and Rescue League, organizations that are dedicated to exposing the cruelty behind the "delicacy."

Foie gras, which is French for "fatty liver," is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds have up to 4 pounds of food per day pumped into their stomachs through long metal pipes that are shoved down their throats. The cruel ordeal often causes severe injuries that make it painful or even impossible for birds to drink. Those who survive the feedings suffer from a painful illness that causes their livers to swell to eight to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to walk and are reduced to pushing themselves across their cages with their wings. When the birds are slaughtered, their livers are sold for foie gras.

15 comments:

A Motley Tunic said...

Aaw man. Thats really horrible. Mesa proud to be a vegetarian.

vi said...

Hi Gi,
I had heard about this...so cruel...me a total believer in non-violence... proud to be a vegetarian!

vi

Thanu said...

If meat didn't taste so good I wud be vegetarin too...

Unknown said...

That is gross! [to put it mildly]

Archana said...

I am a non-veggie. Still, reading about the way foie gras is prepared made me want to throw up. Those poor birds :-(!

Ginkgo said...

sowmya, Vi,
not about being a veg or a nv...

the way those birds are tortured is what makes u feel bad...

remember, back home, how they used to get those hens tied to cycle carriers like 4-5 together..

maan very bad..

Thanu,
Yeh.. I know..itz tuff..
thts y I'm amazed at a few of my friends..who were supposedly voracious meat eaters, the likes that cudnt go without NV fo even a single day...they have after coming here, for some reason or the other..havent had meat for like years...
Kewl na:-)

Prasanna,
I was getting kinda jittery that no guys other than Mukund(chennai central)and bhole visit my blog..
U made me breathe easy :-)

Arch.. u 2 :-)

aria said...

Gosh .. this is so .. I dun hv words .
Btw .. I do think . being a vegetarian matters ..
In my opinion .. theres no "nice" way to kill any living thing ..
This reminds me - long bck there used to be a show on Doordarshan by Menaka Gandhi (I'm not her fan!) n it showed how - the butchers kill all kinda preys .. n after tht show many hardcore non veggies turned vegetarian ...(probably for a short time)
It was then - when we din hv million channels n cable tv .. so everyone just saw DD

For the record - I'm a veggie too

Priya Sivan said...

being a veg or non veg doesnt come into the topic..but this sight is gruesome!

vi said...

hmmm I agree with flower on this...there is no nice way to kill an animal...so vegetarianism does come in the picture...just my opinion :)

vi

Ginkgo said...

Vi,
okee...All I was saying was, this post aint about the virtues or otherwise of being a veg..

The 'gross' factor is for everyone across the divide :-)

Archana said...

Huh, u 2 what? Puriyala :-(!

Krish said...

Gingko, enna kodumai idhu?

Unknown said...

Hey Ginkgo,
I was born a non-vegetarian. Chicken & crabs were my favourite till I saw them torturing those birds for us to eat them.I was 10 then, since then I've been a complete veggie. That makes it 25 years now! That sounds like a loooooong time! Doesn't a silver jublee year call for celebration?

Thanx for reminding me!

Rashmi.

Ginkgo said...

ffb,
I knew u wud be spooked by it:-~

priya,
True. doesnt matter if u are veg or non veg..to think itz a annual feature..is wat irks me more..

thenavan,
kodumai thaan...

Rashmi..
:-). Good to see another of those 'NV' abstinent ppl..
calls for celebration for sure:-)

Priyamvada_K said...

:(. Have never heard of this before - forcefeeding animals to enlarge their livers. Warped and worrisome.

Have never eaten foie gras - thank God.

Priya.