A three-judge panel of a federal appeals court has unanimously ruled to uphold the enforcement of a recently enacted California law banning the sale of foie gras produced from birds who have been cruelly force-fed. The decision is in response to a lawsuit filed by out-of-state foie gras producers, including Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York, and a California restaurant group.<\/p>\n
The court held that the intent of the foie gras ban was to discourage the product’s consumption and to “prevent complicity in a practice that [California] deemed cruel to animals.” According to the ruling, the law applies to “California entities and out-of-state entities and precludes sales within California of products produced by force feeding birds, regardless of where the force feeding occurred.”<\/p>\n
This ruling comes on the heels of a recent Mercy For Animals investigation at Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the country’s largest foie gras producer. The shocking undercover footage shows workers violently grabbing ducks by their wings and necks and shoving metal pipes down their throats in order to force-feed them. This painful force-feeding process causes the birds’ livers to swell up to 10 times their normal size. The resulting diseased, fatty livers are sold as “foie gras” at Amazon.com.<\/p>\n
Watch the hidden-camera video footage here:
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