At its annual convention and after much debate, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) voted against two competing resolutions regarding the artificial force feeding of ducks and geese to produce foie gras, leaving the organization with no position on the issue.

One of the resolutions, submitted by the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights (AVAR) for the fourth consecutive year, asked the AVMA to oppose the practice because it causes severe illness in the birds used. The competing resolution, submitted by the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association the day before the meeting, asked the AVMA to approve force feeding to produce foie gras, in accordance with AVMA's welfare guidelines, as an acceptable animal agriculture practice.

In its vote against the AVAR resolution, which was submitted on behalf of AVAR's members who are also AVMA members, the AVMA stated that there isn't enough science to back a stand against the practice.

It voted against the Connecticut VMA resolution in support of the practice because the AVMA doesn't have any guidelines on the practice to which the resolution referred.
 
"The science clearly shows that these animals are diseased and suffering," said Holly Cheever, DVM, AVAR's vice president. Cheever presented the resolution on behalf of AVAR, along with a substantial packet of scientific articles by international avian experts which support the statement that "foie gras is made from an adulterated organ in a diseased bird." Our professional responsibility should be to protect animals from this type of cruel treatment," she said.

Foie gras is produced by restraining a bird, thrusting a pipe or tube into a 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. The birds used to produce foie gras develop hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease, from the unnaturally large amount of food they must digest. Clinical signs of the disease include brain damage due to liver failure, dyspnea, anorexia, depression, and abdominal enlargement that accompanies such a grossly enlarged and abnormal liver. Additionally, avian experts, who examined necropsies of birds who were force fed, found a host of severe infections and evidence of trauma from the practice.
        
AVAR has worked to oppose the practice of force feeding to produce foie gras in other arenas as well, including being the primary sponsor of legislation passed in 2004 which bans force feeding to produce foie gras, as well as sales of the product, in 2012 in California.

For more information, contact: Teri Barnato, AVAR National Director, (530) 759-8106 or teri@avar.org.