Another victory for our darling ducks has been won. The Indian government banned the import of foie gras into the country on July 3, 2014.
Animal Equality, an animal activist group, fought hard to make this landmark decision a reality, conducting a two year international campaign against the foie gras farming practice. Their campaign included horrific video footage and testimonials from the Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations and the European Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare. Both organizations requested that the country’s minister of commerce ban the import of foie gras due to its gruesome and inhumane farming practices.
To produce foie gras (“fatty liver”), pipes are rammed down male ducks’ or geese’s throats several times per day and as much as four pounds of grain and fat are pumped into the animals’ stomachs. This causes their livers to bloat to up to ten times their normal size, creating the “delicacy” that foie gras is considered to be. Because of this abusive practice, the birds have difficulty standing and often tear out their own feathers or cannibalize each other due to the stress of their environments.
India has joined Argentina, Denmark, Turkey, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom in banning the production and import of foie gras, and we can only hope the rest of the world will follow in these progressive countries’ footsteps. Let’s hope the United States is next.
Photo Credit: Atlasroutier