Chicago Bans Sale of Foie Gras in Restaurants: What is Foie Gras?

An excellent move and a great campaign. Chicago really took a step forward on this one. Foie gras truly is unnecessarily cruel.
For those who don’t know, foie gras is essentially the liver from a dead duck who was force-fed via a tube overly large quantities of foods in order to increase the liver beyond its usual size. As you might imagine it’s an extremely painful process. So, essentially, it’s hell on earth for them, and then they’re slaughtered. Quite a life.
More information on foie gras can be found at: http://www.nofoiegras.org/

Article:

Chicago bans sale of foie gras in restaurants

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=
2628&ncid=2628&e=17&u=/afp/20060426/ts_
alt_afp/usanimalrightsfood_060426210339

Wed Apr 26, 5:07 PM ET

Chicago has banned the sale of foie gras in its restaurants because city officials think the French delicacy is cruel.

The city council has joined a growing animal rights crusade against the fatty livers which are produced by force-feeding ducks and geese.

Chicago's ban follows a bill introduced in California in 2004 that bans the sale and production of foie gras by 2012. Chicago -- which garnered the nickname Hogtown because of its sprawling slaughter houses -- will impose the ban by September.

Fines will range from 250 to 500 dollars for restaurants caught serving the dish.

Force-feeding birds has also been banned in 15 countries, including Germany, Italy, Israel and Britain, according to animal rights group Farm Sanctuary which runs the nofoiegras.org website. Similar bans have been introduced in several other US states.

The Chicago city ordinance, which passed with a near-unanimous vote, cited a number of reasons for banning a dish that has been granted cultural heritage status by the French parliament.

It called the practice "inhumane, cited media reports showing the "unethical practice" of producers, noted that a famous local chef had stopped serving it in his restaurants and cited a poll in which nearly 80 percent of Americans support a ban on force feeding birds.