“Since I saw how it was produced, I stopped consuming it.” It’s a phrase I’ve heard often and it’s a common reaction when you discover what force-feeding involves to produce foie gras: for two weeks, the ducks are force-fed by inserting a 30-centimeter metal tube into their esophagus, forcing them to eat up to 2 kilos of corn per day. It’s like we’re forced to eat 12 kilos of food a day.
During this brutal process, many suffer esophageal injuries, infections and breathing difficulties and die within two weeks. Force-feeding transforms the liver into a completely diseased organ, reaching up to ten times its natural weight.
If these animals were not sacrificed, they would die. The condition into which they bring their bodies is incompatible with life.
In the research we have been carrying out for years on Spanish and French farms, we have documented the cruelty of this practice. We have recorded ducks with broken beaks, bloodied, without receiving veterinary care. Dead ducks, who couldn’t stand the process, and others who have difficulty breathing. We even recorded the owner of a farm that supplied Mugaritz – considered one of the best restaurants in the world – boasting that she slaughtered the ducks without stunning them because she got a better quality liver that way.
The Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Welfare of the European Union considers that force-feeding these birds is detrimental to their well-being.
It is one of the cruelest practices in the livestock industry and is already banned in 18 countries. Denmark, Finland, Argentina, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom have already left this animal abuse behind them. The Indian government banned the import of this product in 2014 through an animal equality campaign, becoming the first country to take this step. In 2019, it was banned in California and New York City banned its production and sale.
On the other hand, Spain is one of only five countries in Europe that still allows this cruelty. For years we have wanted to make this problem visible through our research, bringing to the media the reality of the abuse that more than a million ducks and geese suffer every year in Spain to produce foie gras. And as the Eurobarometer and all relevant surveys indicate, force-feeding is a practice that causes rejection in society.
The time has come to bring the debate to the institutions, to the legislative sphere. It is for this reason that on October 8 we delivered more than 100,000 signatures to the Congress of Deputies, demanding that the government put an end to forced feeding for the production of foie gras.
The debate continues and a few days ago the Parliamentary Group of Sumar, through the deputy of Sumar Nahuel González and the representative of Verdes Equo in the Parliamentary Group of Congress, Mar González, registered questions regarding the prohibition of this practice cruel in Spain.
In the letter, they ask the government to clarify its position regarding force-feeding and whether it intends to address legislative reforms to ban it, and they ask whether the government has considered excluding foie gras from banquets. and official receptions, making it clear in public. contracts with catering companies.
This government claims to be the most progressive in history, a claim that cannot coexist with the authorization of a practice as anachronistic and atrocious as force-feeding.
The time has come to demand progress and political will in promoting animal protection, which constitutes a step forward towards a more empathetic and less violent society.
