Abigail Penny of Animal Equality UK, said: 'Foie gras is the definition of animal cruelty. We simply cannot tolerate this any longer. A ban can’t come soon enough.'
KIM WILLSHER: The head of France’s foie gras producers’ association has said she is “shocked and outraged” that the British government is considering banning imports of the product. And she has invited MPs to visit French farms producing foie gras to see the force feeding of ducks and geese and judge for themselves whether it is “cruel and torturous”, as animal rights campaigners claim…
A cross-party group of British MPs has written to ministers urging them to ban sales of foie gras in the UK. The letter to the environment secretary, George Eustice, and the animal welfare minister, Lord Goldsmith, was coordinated by the campaign group Animal Equality. “Over the coming months, thousands more ducks and geese will endure torturous treatment for this cruel product,” the letter states.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said it was “exploring further restrictions” to the delicacy following reports that Goldsmith was determined to ban sales in the UK, having described it earlier this year as “unbearably barbaric”… Abigail Penny, executive director of Animal Equality UK, said: “Foie gras is the definition of animal cruelty and people are clearly united in their hatred for this wicked product. We simply cannot tolerate this any longer. A ban can’t come soon enough.”
Marie-Pierre Pé, director of the Comité Interprofessionnel des Palmipèdes à Foie Gras (CIFOG), which represents about 3,500 foie gras producers, said: “I am shocked and I deplore the fact that the freedom to sell a perfectly healthy product defined under international conventions is threatened….
Asked about the gavage, the most controversial aspect of foie gras production, where long tubes are pushed down the birds throat to pump food into the digestive system, causing the liver to swell to several times its natural size, Pé said campaigners were anthropomorphising – attributing human characteristics to animals – by claiming this harmed or hurt the ducks and geese.
“People have to stop imaging a tube being inserted in their own throat, because a duck and goose’s throat is nothing like yours. For a start, the duck’s throat is elastic and at the base there is a pocket that allows them to stock food – called gésiers, which is like our stomach,” she said… “It does no harm to them. Of course, you have to know how to insert the tube, but if done properly the animal does not suffer and scientific studies have been made into the possible effects of the gavage, so we know”…
Marie-Pierre Pé, director of the Comité Interprofessionnel des Palmipèdes à Foie Gras (CIFOG), which represents about 3,500 foie gras producers, said: “foie gras had been singled out for a ban, “because foie gras is a gastronomic symbol of France. I think we are an easy target.
“It’s a recurrent theme and strategy by the animal rights groups. They produce sensational images to influence economics”… Pé said that despite Covid restrictions… producers reported 1.2 million new French buyers in 2020… “There is no problem in terms of support for our products in France,” she said. “The French love foie gras, there is extraordinary support for it,” she added…
France is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of foie gras. CIFOG says French farmers produced 15,000 tonnes of foie gras last year – down on the 18,800 tonnes produced in 2019 – mostly in and around the Périgord region, in south-west France. Up to 5,000 tonnes are exported annually, with up to 200 tonnes a year coming to Britain. SOURCE…
RELATED VIDEO: