Requesting that the melodramatics be absent is the way to encourage comments. Sticking to the actual issue, i.e. importation of foie gras, would have put the onus of opening up the discussion on the one who enlarges the issue.

free range sounds so nice

like free range makes it better - so the ducks run around before being periodically tortured.

No Pete i have never been banned and have only changed my name due to technical difficulties - duh why would i use basically the same name with only small change if i wanted to hide?

and again free range torture is still torture. and to say that that type of activity can be condoned by silence never will work here.

But i will check into the 'humane' funneling of these fowl and see if what is said is so and then i may change my mind. Will you do the same?

Palenque, I am awaiting you at Any Port in a Storm.

I think I'll open up a big old tin of it this very evening and gorge on it in Palenque's honor. YUM YUM YUM! Is there anything more sublime than the bloated liver of a goose? Nope.

StCirq

Dont forget this level of sublime gastronomy also requires abused pigs to labor in finding the truffles.

Hi StCirq; We open our last tin tomorrow night, the 3rd of April. My sisters boyfriend had painted a large [replica] Roman/Greek jar at the villa we had rented in Lucca two years ago. We knew he was doing the painting. But, he suprised me for my 74th birthday, presenting me with a framed painting of the jar, with flowers and so tomorow night we are having an 'unveiling'. When we leave Portugal on the 26th of April, hopefully I can replenish at the duty free. iris1745/dick

Well, Frank, these days it's more often abused dogs, but I do agree - the horror of it!

Iris, what a lovely event! Enjoy!

I'm actually going to pack a double-torture whammy this evening. We've opened up a tin of caille désossée stuffed with foie gras from my favorite farm in the Périgord and are just about to dive into it. I'm not sure what they did to the quail, but I'm betting it was something Dick Cheney would have been proud of.

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=39474

Eighty million ducklings are born each year to produce foie gras. Straightaway after hatching, sexing directs the majority of females to death by gassing or grinding. The force feeding of males begins at the age of 80 days. The majority (75%) are placed in tiny individual cages. The others are locked in collective pens. Twice a day, a tube is pushed down their stomachs and up to 1 kg of corn mash is injected in a few seconds by using pneumatic or hydraulic pumps. After 12 days, if they’re not already dead, they are led to the slaughterhouse to be killed and turned into fat livers and duck meat.

At the end of the feeding period, the liver has reached up to 10 times its normal size. Other organs are compressed, the regulation of body temperature is altered, the gasping birds suffer from diarrhea. Many diseases develop because of the feeding, (diseases of the digestive system, bone demineralization) as well as injuries caused by the passage of the feeding tube. Many birds are unable to endure this treatment and die before slaughter. The mortality rate during the feeding period is 6 times higher than during the breeding period which precedes it.

Free range foie gras - this means for a while the birds walk around until after enough force feeding they can hardly stand up on their own - St cirq describes the ducks as rushing to be fed - actually they can hardly waddle at a certain point - many die before slaughter indeed.

Free range foie gras is still animal torture

bon appetit

From this point forward, effective immediately, I am going to become an advocate for the abolishment of the cruel and painful treatment given to vegetables and other voiceless members of Mother Earths' valuable resources. For example, how do we know for certain that vegetables aren't sentient and that they don't make plaintive, ultrasonic screams that are undetectable to human ears when they are mercilessly uprooted from the ground and taken forcibly to market, brutally and without thought...separated from their loved ones?

And what of water?...How do we know that water doesn't suffer some catastrophic trauma when we heat it in our plumbing to take a shower or, as we see it..innocuously swallow it to slake our thirst?

I say, enough of the abuse!! End the Madness!!

(Hope Palenque jumps on the bandwagon and stops showering, swallowing and eating his Brussel Sprouts!!)

Imagine that you are a carrot being peeled.

I feel for veggie abuse too

every time i peel an onion i cry

Kale is my fav veg

A carrot being peeled? Is this related to the thread about circumcision?

We had a friend that was a vegetarian. He said it wasn't because he liked animals, it was because he hated vegetables.

Good article about the hypocrisy of the anti-foie crowd.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/food/eat_dr...ras/index.html

StCirq's link aptly points out why it is sanctioning animal abuse/torture if you eat any mass produced meat - thanks for pointing out that and making me determined to oppose that more vehemently too

St Cirq - all you do is say one wrong sanctions another - if meat production is a horrible as your link points out then by eating meat you (and I) are sanctioning horrible animal abuse as well

Your link does nothing to absolve Foie Gras producers from torturing animals.

And i suspose you also have either a cat or dog you love? Do you then say it's OK for Chinese to put live cats and dogs into boiling water - after then being confined to tiny cages?

I would hope so.

Bon appetit!

Well, I've just read that the fois gras folks wouldn't buy it in tins so the French don't care if you take it home!