Delicacy of Despair, a Film Exposing the Horrifying Cruelty of Foie Gras
“The extent of human brutality towards animals is particularly obvious in the production of foie gras. Ducks and geese are intentionally made ill for a product that is commonly considered a luxury.”~ Hanna Zedlacher, Four Paws Farm Animal Expert
Delicacy of Despair reveals the truth behind how foie gras (French for “fatty liver”) is produced and is a graphic indictment of the foie gras food industry. Through an undercover investigation, the film exposes the dark and horrifying cruelty behind the factory farming of ducks and geese. Film footage depicts how young ducks and geese are systematically force-fed three times a day using an unlubricated, cold, large metal pole that is forced down their throats, then deposits a pound of corn and grain straight into the stomach in seconds. This amount is the equivalent of a tenth of their body weight delivered instantly in just one force feeding. The ducks and geese are forced to endure this trauma multiple times every single day for three to four months, until their bodies are completely ravaged, and they would otherwise die from liver toxicity. Then they are slaughtered at six months old, 14+ years younger than is natural for them. This repeated force-feeding results in a metabolic illness called hepatic lipidosis, and by the time of slaughter, the ducks’ livers are essentially diseased organs, grossly enlarged to six to 10 times their healthy size and yellow from saturated fat. The ducks and geese experience this from three months to six months of age, then are killed. An average duck or goose lives to 15 years.
Over half a million ducks are confined, tortured, and slaughtered in factory farms every year in the United States to produce this “gourmet” cruelty. Just two companies are responsible for all of this suffering—Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York and Sonoma Foie Gras in California, which closed due to California’s ban on foie gras. Most people have no idea that these factory farms even exist, much less what goes on inside their dark, windowless hell-on-earth. Confined in crowded pens and tiny isolation cages; force fed three times a day to fatten their livers; these ducks suffer immensely behind closed doors where their cries of pain cannot be heard.
GourmetCruelty.com takes you into their darkness and opens the doors to the truth behind these gulags, exposing the daily pain and torture inherent to the production of this cruel “delicacy.” Over the course of its year-long investigation (2002-2003), GourmetCruelty.com investigators were able to rescue fifteen of these long-suffering birds. Delicacy of Despair is the haunting portrait of the tens of thousands of ducks who are left behind every year, and the lucky fifteen who found freedom.
Film Premier: 2003
Film Length: 16 minutes
Foie Gras Bans in the U.S.
In addition to many foie gras bans in countries around the world, the U.S. has one ban in place in California, with another just introduced in New York.
State of California
A law banning the sale and production of foie gras was passed in California in 2004. To give producers time to find a more humane process than force feeding ducks and geese through a tube called a gavage, courts allowed producers until July 2012 for the ban to take legal affect. In response, non-California foie gras producers and sellers filed a legal motion to keep the law from being enacted. A district court ruled in California’s favor and a panel of three judges in the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals voted to keep the ban in place in August 2013. But in 2015, the ban wasoverturned by the U.S. District Court for California’s Central District, after an appeal from plaintiffs (including the Association des Eleveurs de Canards et D’Oies du Quebec, Hudson Valley Foie Gras, and L.A.-based Hot’s Restaurant Group) who re-wrote their legal pleadings. Chefs immediately pulled all the foie they’d been hiding in their walk-ins and put it back onto menus across California. At this point, foie gras could be sold and purchased, but not produced, in the state. (The state’s sole producer, Sonoma Foie Gras, went out of business immediately after the law went into effect in 2012.) In 2017, the Ninth Circuit judges rejected the idea that the state’s law against the sale of foie gras should be preempted by federal law (the aforementioned Poultry Products Inspection Act), stating that California had a right to ban it on the basis of animal cruelty. The matter was sent back to the district for appeal,allowingthe sale of foie gras until the appeals process had been completed. On January 7, 2019, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case (the court’s decision not to hear a case is not solely based on merit; and sent it back to the Ninth Court of Appeals and then to the district court. The injunction was vacated, effectively reinstating the ban.The ban is now back in place. (~ Eater San Francisco, January 9, 2019)
New York City
Assemblyman Jack McEneny (D-Albany) in New York, just introduced a bill banning foie gras in New York City in January 2019. The bill would amend the state’s animal cruelty law to make it “unlawful to force feed a bird, by hand or machine, for the purpose of fatty enlargement of the bird’s liver.” The bill, though currently stalled in committee, has received more than 1,000 postcards of support from all over the country this year alone. Jim Van Alstine, campaign coordinator of the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, also has a local campaign in the works.
How Foie Gras is Made
Ducks and geese are force-fed cornmeal and grain to make their livers grow up to ten times their natural size in order to produce foie gras. This force-feeding is known as gavage. Force-feeding ducks and geese causes a number of injuries: bruising or perforation of the esophagus; hemorrhaging and inflammation of the neck resulting from the repeated insertion of the pipe to the throat; and asphyxia caused by food improperly forced into the trachea. Wounds of the esophagus may subsequently become infected. Force-feeding also results in numerous illnesses and disease, including: hepatic lipidosis, bacterial and fungal infections, malnourishment, and lameness. For these reasons, mortality rates for force-fed ducks are 10 to 20 times higher than those for non-force fed ducks. Behavioral evidence shows that ducks and geese experience terrible fear and pain, as well as acute and chronic stress from the multiple daily force-feedings and the pain associated with them.
Hundreds of restaurants around the world have stopped serving foie gras because of its inherent and obvious animal cruelty. Nationwide retailers such as Whole Foods, Costco.com and Aramark have also banned the sale of foie gras. Internationally, the foie gras ban has expanded as fast as general animal welfare laws have been interpreted to prohibit the practice. Countries that banned the force-feeding of ducks and geese include: Argentina, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Turkey, Holland, Israel, Switzerland, and the UK.
Learn More About Foie Gras
Peer-reviewed scientific research study, Scientists and Experts on Force-Feeding for Foie Gras Production and Duck and Goose Welfare
WSPA, Compassion in World Farming, Humane Society, and Four Paws, Foie Gras: The Cruelty Behind the Delicacy
Force Feeding – An Inquiry into the Welfare of Ducks and Geese Kept for the Production of Foie Gras, produced by Advocates for Animals and World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
PETA Explains, The Pain Behind Foie Gras
Watch the Mercy For Animals’ film, Behind the Closed Doors of the Foie Gras Industry
What You Can Do
- Never Buy Foie Gras – Not from a store, from a producer, or from a restaurant – never
- Go Vegan – Choose not to support the inherent cruelty done to animals who are raised and used for food. Don’t buy animal products or eat animal foods at home or in a restaurant, by doing so you are directly supporting and causing the deep cruelty done to them – for you
- For a Free Vegetarian Starter Guide – Visit www.TryVeg.com or call 1-866-MEAT FREE
Quotes from the Film
“Ducks can live up to 18 years old, but ducks on foie gras farms are slaughtered at only 4-6 months old.”
“Foie Gras, or fatty liver, is the grossly enlarged liver of a duck or goose. This condition is induced through cruel force-feeding, it enlarges the duck or gooses liver by 12 times its natural and healthy size.”
“Foie Gras is a ‘disease’ marketed as a delicacy.”
“Every year in the U.S., 500,000 ducks are confined, tortured and slaughtered. Only two companies are responsible for all the suffering of over a half million ducks per year—Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York State and Sonoma Foie Gras in California.”
“In 2002, a coalition of animal welfare and production groups and individuals wanted to tour foie gras facilities, but were rejected. They did an undercover investigation instead.”
“But inside the giant sheds of these foie gras factory farms, tens of thousands of ducks spend their entire short lives crammed inside crowded, filthy, stinking pens, suspended above stagnant rivers of their own excrement. These thousands of ducks only know steel cages and hard wires for beds.”
“Increasingly, for the majority of ducks, they are forced to languish in isolation cages so small, they can barely move, not even spread their wings or turn around.”
“The forced feeding begins when the ducks are just three months old. From this point on, the ducks have a long metal pole repeatedly forced down their throats.”
“Through this pole, they are forced to ingest a pound of food, a tenth of their body weight in one setting. They must endure this trauma three times a day, every single day.”
“The confinement and force-feeding of these ducks and geese devastate the birds.”
“An oversize duck can barely stand up after being force-fed. Countless others suffer neurological problems due to the force-feeding.”
“Access to water is almost non-existent in these facilities and farms, which is so central to their natural lives. They are water-born birds.”
“The conditions on the factory farm, leave ducks weak and vulnerable. We watched two ducks that were eaten alive by rats. They are so weak from force-feeding, they cannot even struggle.”
“At four months, their mortality rate reaches 100% as they are then slaughtered.”
“All the 15 ducks who were rescued from the factory farms, had ravaged bodies, and could not walk, and were unable to eat by themselves. After receiving emergency veterinary care, the ducks began physical therapy using an underwater treadmill.”
Film Credits
Film Director – Ryan Shapiro
Produced by – GourmetCruelty.com
Undercover Investigative footage is provided by GourmetCruelty.com and Animal Protection and Rescue League
I must confess, I like foie gras, it tastes delicious. It is a traditional speciality. I know, how the birds are feed, and it may be not pleasant for them, but eating them is pleasant for us… They are livestock. No livestock has a pleasant life, but for me, that can’t be reason to become vegan. Human is predator and carnivore, so we need livestock as a meat source… I can’t judge, whether a bird for foie gras “suffers” more than other poultry. However, talking about “cruelty” is exaggerated. I really think, every meat consumer may eat foie gras without any moral doubts.
Thanks for your comment Lucas. If you think animals matter morally at all, then we cannot justify consuming animals or products made from them. If you feel animals matter morally and are sentient (which science proves they are) then we have a moral obligation not to impose unnecessary suffering on animals. It’s absolutely unnecessary to inflict suffering on animals for reasons of pleasure, amusement or convenience. We absolutely don’t need food from animals to live, to be healthy, to thrive—in fact, just the opposite is true. Plant-based, vegans are the longest lived communities (there are 5) on the planet, with an average age into their 90s and 100s, living healthy without chronic diseases. Eating animals causes chronic disease. Animal products are not necessary in any way for us to live, it is simply a choice, a desire, that’s all it is. That some people may have no moral concern for animals does not negate that most people do, and those who have no moral concern represent only a minority of people. So what you have made clear is that the pleasure of your palette trumps an animals’ suffering and dying. Many vegans that have given up all animal foods, once did like cheese, eggs, etc. But we stopped consuming animal foods because we made a moral decision not to inflict suffering. Vegans and vegetarians believe that causing unnecessary suffering to animals is morally wrong, it’s that simple. Our eating habits and desires — are just that — habits and desires. They are easy to change when people decide to. If you cannot justify any suffering imposed on animals used for food, then you/we are obligated to adopt a vegan diet. I understand this is not your position. But it’s very clear and well substantiated that ducks and geese DO suffer when large steel pipes are forced down their throats and a pound of grain is dumped directly into their bodies three times a day. Investigative photos show how this procedure has trashed, damaged, made sick, diseased and killed ducks and geese even before the three months that it is done—-and then they are killed. If ducks and geese live to 15 years normally, unconfined, but for Foie Gras, must be killed at 6 months, I think you get the picture. Suffering, cruelty, misery, agony, and death – all before 6-8 months of age, all for foie gras – that no human needs. It is only a “want” over all of their suffering, pain and death. And “livestock” is an animal agriculture term. But animals are sentient, calling them “livestock” doesn’t change the fact they experience a wide range of emotions, have strong desires, can reason, are cognitive, feel pain and joy, are intuitive, love their young — all exactly like people do. No different. Cruelty is cruelty, it is caused when pain is inflicted intentionally. All animals used for food incur and experience cruelty at the hands of man. I do understand your position. I was indoctrinated to eat meat when I was young, I realized it was only an indoctrination. I changed many years ago. Take care.