Resolution Once Again Submitted to AVMA on Force Feeding of Ducks and Geese- Posted June 2007
AVAR has submitted for a fourth consecutive year a resolution to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) asking it to oppose the artificial force feeding of ducks and/or geese to produce foie gras. Foie gras is produced by restraining a bird and inserting a pipe or tube into the bird's esophagus and then forcing large amounts of corn meal mush into the bird's crop. The practice is repeated at least twice daily for several weeks until the bird's liver is swelled to 10-12 times normal size because of the feeding practice. This practice is forced upon tens of thousands of ducks in this country alone every year. Despite the piles of poignant information about the negative health effects of the force feeding practice on birds used to produce foie gras, a French entree, the AVMA continues to argue that the science does not support AVAR's contention that the practice creates a diseased organ in a suffering animal. To help make our case, AVAR submitted within the resolution information from a 900-page brief that was filed by The Humane Society of the United States in support of a lawsuit over sales of foie gras in New York, which contained many scientific articles by international avian experts, each declaring that foie gras is made from an adulterated organ in a diseased bird. Similarly, the 89-page European Union Report of the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare on foie gras production also contains a wealth of scientific support for the statement that these birds suffer greatly as their health deteriorates. (Go to http://ec.europa.eu/food/fs/sc/scah/out17_en.pdf) The resolution will be voted on at the AVMA convention this summer in Washington, D.C., by the AVMA House of Delegates.
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