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Animal Welfare Proponents And Religious Leaders Join Ethicists And Legal Experts To Voice Support For Bill To Prohibit Foie Gras In Illinois

Springfield, IL - March 6, 2007 - Rep. Robert Molaro (D-21st) and Sen. Pam Althoff (R-32nd) have introduced companion bills, House Bill 867 and Senate Bill 312, to prohibit the production and sale of foie gras in Illinois. Today at 11 a.m., a group of leaders and experts in animal welfare, ethics, religion and law will hold a press conference at the Illinois State Capitol in support of the bills. A hearing is scheduled on Wednesday, March 7, to discuss the House bill.

Those participating in the press conference and/or hearing include Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk of the National Catholic Bioethics Center; Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Anshe Shalom Synagogue, member of the Rabbinical Council of America, the Chicago Board of Rabbis and the Chicago Rabbinical Council; Professor Cherie Travis of DePaul University College of Law; Dr. Holly Cheever, a practicing veterinarian; Dr. Jana Kohl, a psychologist whose family founded Kohl’s Grocery and Department Stores; Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary; and Paul Shapiro, director of the Factory Farming Campaign of The Humane Society of the United States.

On April 26, 2006, the Chicago City Council voted 48 to 1 to ban the sale of foie gras in the city. The ordinance went into effect Aug. 23, 2006. More than a dozen countries have laws prohibiting foie gras production on ethical grounds, and in 2004, California passed the first U.S. law to end the production and sale of foie gras in the state. A September 2005 Zogby poll revealed 79 percent of likely voters in Illinois agree that foie gras production should be outlawed.

According to a statement released by Professor Martha Nussbaum, the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago in support of H.B. 867, “This is the type of regulation that cities and states are accustomed to enacting in reference to a wide variety of issues that impact the public good, including animal cruelty. It is comparable to bans on the sale of products produced from endangered species and the sale of dog or cat pelts, and is consistent with our state's civility and ethics.”

Foie gras (French for “fatty liver”) is produced by force-feeding ducks and geese two or three times a day through a pipe shoved down their throats. The force-feeding can cause painful bruising, lacerations, sores, and organ rupture. Due to this unhealthy and unnatural diet, the birds’ livers become diseased and can swell to more than 10 times their normal size, making it difficult for the birds to walk or even breathe. Some suffer a slow death before slaughter. Experts assert the practice is abusive and cruel, and examinations of birds following slaughter reveal ruptured esophagi and livers, grossly swollen and discolored livers, and a host of infections.

“There is no excuse or justification for the practice of subjecting animals to this extreme torture,” stated Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary. “No reasonable validation exists for foie gras within the values of American society. It is just plain wrong.”

“Foie gras production involves purposefully inducing a state of disease in birds for the mere sake of a so-called ’delicacy,’” said Paul Shapiro, director of The HSUS factory farming campaign. “The Humane Society of the United States encourages Illinois lawmakers to ban the cruel and inhumane practice of force-feeding birds to produce foie gras.”

Dr. Holly Cheever, who has witnessed conditions at foie gras farms and is scheduled to testify at Wednesday’s hearing, added, “If those who purchase and eat this product could only see the diseased organ inside the body of a filth-encrusted duck, the last place they would put this ‘delicacy’ is in their mouths.”

Additional information about foie gras, legislation banning its sale or production, as well as a list of restaurants and retail establishments—including more than 200 in Illinois—that have pledged to not serve the product, can be found at www.NoFoieGras.org.

About The Humane Society of the United States

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest animal protection organization—backed by 10 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—on the web at www.HumaneSociety.org.

Farm Sanctuary is the nation's leading farm animal protection organization. Since incorporating in 1986, Farm Sanctuary has worked to expose and stop cruel practices of the "food animal" industry through research and investigations, legal and institutional reforms, public awareness projects, youth education, and direct rescue and refuge efforts. Farm Sanctuary shelters in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Orland, Calif., provide lifelong care for hundreds of rescued animals, who have become ambassadors for farm animals everywhere by educating visitors about the realities of factory farming. Additional information can be found at www.farmsanctuary.org or by calling 607-583-2225.