reignnyday t1_j0hn19q wrote
I visited Hudson valley farms in college primed to do a hit piece on ducks being tortured and all I saw were a bunch of ducks literally standing to get fed. Cracked me up in the moment.
It’s inhumane but pretty much all animal protein raised in the US is inhumane so if your view of foie is to ban it, then it needs to be consistently applied equally to all animal meats
LibertyNachos t1_j0ieubf wrote
The issue is that foie gras typically is made by force-feeding geese using a tube. There are Spanish farmers trying to make it using naturally fed poultry but it is not as common.
Lost_sidhe t1_j0ijr45 wrote
Makes sense - foie gras (a waterfowl liver in the fatty state pre-migration) can be found in some wild ducks/geese. It's not like we invented it.
njmids t1_j0ixj1i wrote
It does look really bad, but apparently the ducks don’t really mind. They don’t have the same gag reflex we do.
LibertyNachos t1_j0izf4t wrote
It’s not altogether great for the bird:
Force-feeding
Force-feeding is used to produce the size and fat content that qualifies a liver as “foie gras” (1). Ducks do not have a crop as most other avian species, but have a large esophagus, the capacity of which can be further increased with repeated filling. During the fattening period, a 15 to 25 cm long tube is inserted into the esophagus, dispensing up to 450 g per meal, typically with 2 or 3 meals per day. The volume of feed the birds receive is significantly in excess of what would be their voluntary intake. The repeated capture, restraint, and rapid insertion of the feeding tube and expansion of the distal esophagus can cause aversion and discomfort during force-feeding and immediately afterward while the esophagus is distended. This is a risk factor for esophageal injury and associated pain (2,3). Because geese and ducks do not have a crop, the increasing amount of feed given prior to force-feeding, and the force-feeding itself cause anatomical and physiological adaptation including expansion of the lower part of the esophagus, increased heat production, panting, and production of semi-liquid feces (4). The risk of damage to stretched tissue is greater than that of normal tissue, but it is not known how great this risk is in force-fed ducks (4).
Force-feeding overrides animal preference and homeostasis. Although ducks may, under some conditions, voluntarily consume large amounts of feed, if force-feeding is interrupted in experimental conditions of foie gras production, drakes will voluntarily fast for a period of 3 days or longer, suggesting that the individual animals have been fed past the point of satiety (5).
spahlo t1_j0jq00x wrote
You know what else isn’t good for the bird? Killing it. Foie gras or not those ducks are going to be butchered and sold.
LibertyNachos t1_j0jr273 wrote
I don’t disagree with you there but banning excessive cruelty before slaughter is more achievable than banning meat altogether. Just because it ends up dead either way isn’t a good excuse to tolerate unnecessary cruelty before the end.
spahlo t1_j0k204u wrote
Of course, but it can be made without cruelty and it is currently being done so where’s the issue? Hudson valley farms is a prime example of this and other ethical sources exist as well. Too many people pointing to past practices as if they are the common standard of today for their justification behind banning foie.
LibertyNachos t1_j0l36me wrote
Hudson valley farms absolutely still uses force-feeding machines with tubes though so I’m not sure what you mean by ethical.
fafalone t1_j0lzdac wrote
"We can torture animals however we want so long as they're food animals."
No, being raised for food doesn't confer an inherent right to torture.
It's like suggesting it would be ok to beat death row inmates every day, because we're going to kill them anyway.
Torture and killing for a specific purpose are not ethically the same.
spahlo t1_j0ms69u wrote
Nobody’s torturing the animals in this case. People are anthropomorphizing them and assume that the ducks must dislike the force feeding in the same way a human would.
_switch360_ t1_j0j8de7 wrote
Tastes great, so I don’t care! Usually before my veal I enjoy a treat.
the_lamou t1_j0jh29v wrote
>It’s not altogether great for the bird:
Is worrying about the (very short term) health problems of a bird that is being raised specifically to be murdered really that important?
By the time the force-feeding starts, most farm fowl only have a week to a month of life left.
LibertyNachos t1_j0ji391 wrote
that’s a good philosophical question and hard to answer objectively. I can only state my opinion that the suffering that the bird goes through is unnecessarily cruel. the animal would suffer less if it was permitted to eat food in a more natural manner before it is slaughtered. the end result is the same but the journey to the end is not, and that to me is deserving of reconsideration.
larsreddit0 t1_j0jk11d wrote
Well said.
karmachamilionaire t1_j0jw4y9 wrote
“The ducks don’t mind”
lotsofdeadkittens t1_j0kh2h3 wrote
all meat is evil if you view animals as equals. and even disregarding meat consumption basically everyone is activly choosing to purchase things incredibly harmful to animals. drawing lines like this is really silly
LibertyNachos t1_j0n6nij wrote
drawing lines like this is silly how? the point of animal welfare is to incentivize more humane treatment of these creatures before they are killed so they don’t suffer as much for their lives
Darrackodrama t1_j0n3c1l wrote
The same way a human being might “not mind” being force fed sweets and other Shit by a higher intelligent being right?
Any lack of consent being forced on animals without absolute necessity for society is inhumane. Anything that can be feasibly done to mitigate animal abuse should be done
blacktongue t1_j0kwqm0 wrote
Yeah but they don’t have a gag reflex, you just kinda feed them right into their stomach. They get fatter than they would on their own, but again, it’s animal agriculture, none of it is ‘natural’
freeradicalx t1_j0igxf0 wrote
A blanket ban on all inhumane animal treatment sounds great to me, let's do it.
funtrial t1_j0ij9za wrote
Yes, let's!!
anonyuser415 t1_j0hqjtz wrote
ag-gag laws say: good luck
[deleted] t1_j0i264j wrote
[removed]
TrekkerMcTrekkerface t1_j0mw3qm wrote
I am fairly close to the farmer; far superior care and husbandry on that farm than nearly any other farm I know.
yieldsjuni t1_j0io90d wrote
I don't believe you. Seems like a way to to astroturf and convince people things are better than they are.
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