

"[T]here is good evidence that liver structure and function…is severely altered and compromised in force fed ducks and geese. [The Committee] on Animal Health and Animal Welfare concludes that force feeding, as currently practised, is detrimental to the welfare of the birds." Europe's Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare "If one looks at the production of foie gras for what it really is—causing a healthy liver to become diseased by forced overfeeding—then eating it could leave a whole different taste in your mouth." Dr. Greg Burkett, DVM, board-certified avian specialist "This overfeeding will lead to liver enlargement and malfunction, causing chronic metabolic dysfunction and illness. The ducks at this facility, therefore, are being subjected to extremely inhumane conditions causing them to suffer greatly." Dr. Nedim C. Buyukmihci, VMD, emeritus professor of veterinary medicine, University of California "It is well-documented that the process of force-feeding these birds inflicts suffering in the form of traumatic injuries to their esophaguses and stomachs as well as severely diseased fatty livers." Dr. Armaiti May, DVM, CVA "Most egregious is the fact that the animals are force fed to create the fatty liver constitutive of foie gras. Many people do not realize that veterinary medicine recognizes 'fatty liver' as a pathological condition, i.e. a disease." Dr. Bernard Rollin, PhD, distinguished professor of animal sciences, Colorado State University "[T]he process of force feeding birds in order to deliberately induce a disease state is patently inhumane, causing severe physical pain and psychological distress." Dr. Lee Schrader, DVM "In my opinion, [force-feeding] is cruel and inhumane, as it involves rough, invasive handling and can result in trauma and injuries to the esophagus. The process overrides the natural system of hunger and satiety and the birds in the video appear to be frightened and distressed—they move immediately away from the handler as soon as they are released." Dr. Sara Shields, PhD, animal welfare expert with an emphasis in poultry "The practice of force feeding amounts of food far beyond the limits of the duck's need to eat causes pain and suffering. Ducks are highly capable of feeling pain especially in the throat area. They have a gag reflex that would be overcome by the tube insertion, and this would cause distress in the bird." Dr. Debra Teachout, DVM, MVSc "Force-feeding in the foie gras industry is inherently cruel. … This feeding beyond what the ducks would eat normally causes hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver, which impairs liver function. Severe liver impairment can lead to conditions like enlargement of the liver, fluid in the abdomen and eventually death." Dr. Lorelei Wakefield, VMD "Through [the] painful force-feeding process, birds have as much as 3 pounds of food pumped into their small bodies every day—in human terms that's roughly 45 pounds of pasta—until they develop a disease that causes their livers to enlarge up to 10 times their normal size." Sir Roger Moore "Foie gras is sold as an expensive 'delicacy' in some restaurants and shops, but no one pays a higher price for foie gras than the ducks and geese who are abused and killed to make it. This is a terrifying and painful process for the birds, who have no semblance of a normal life and know that several times a day a tube will be rammed down their throats." Kate Winslet "Foie-gras is duck that is force fed in a sickening cruel process and is banned in the UK." Leona Lewis "There is clearly nothing humane about mechanically inducing disease in a bird by forcing a pipe down its throat and making it consume such an abnormal quantity of food that its liver expands many times its normal size." Sir Paul McCartney "Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible…this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible." Pope Benedict XVI