Brussels will soon ban the cruel practice of force-feeding ducks and geese for the production of foie gras.
According to Expatica, this is part of a movement to ban all force-feeding across the Belgian and Flemish capital. Recent research commissioned by animal rights organization GAIA found that 84 percent of Belgians support force-feeding bans.
Bianca Debaets, Brussels’s secretary of state for animal welfare, explains:
Animals are forced to ingest large quantities of food. This creates an awful lot of stress for the animals and they experience breathing difficulties. The animal’s liver can grow to weigh up to 1 kilo. Under normal circumstances this is barely 100 grams. Force-feeding boils down to torture. I cannot permit it.
Just this week in New York, home to two of the three U.S. foie gras factory farms, state senator Tony Avella proposed a bill to ban force-feeding. In a letter sent this week, Mercy For Animals urged senate leadership to pass the bill and stop this unnecessary cruelty.
A 2013 MFA undercover investigation at the country’s largest foie gras producer shows workers violently grabbing ducks by their wings or necks, ramming a metal pipe down their throats, and pumping enormous amounts of food into their stomachs.
Watch.
You can hear workers on camera tell our undercover investigator that the practice is so traumatic many birds die from it. Force-feeding is so cruel it has been banned in California and more than a dozen countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Israel.
It’s time we made force-feeding a thing of the past. If you live in New York, please let your state senator know that you support S1559, the bill to end the cruel force-feeding of birds.
Regardless of where you live, take a stand against animal abuse every day by switching to a compassionate vegan diet. Visit ChooseVeg.com to get started.