Geese not upset by foie gras process
I HAVE lived in France for the last six years. Previously I lived in Chudleigh. One of the few things I miss about England is Michael Caines's cooking. Mr Caines is one of Devon's greatest assets.
I wonder how many of the people who signed the anti-foie gras petition have ever eaten foie gras let alone seen the process whereby geese are fed.
I have — indeed, I have filmed it — and would like to say there is no evidence the birds are stressed.
In fact, they seem positively to welcome it, queueing up willingly like the worthy burghers of Exeter to have their fourpennyworth.
My wife and I make our own pate de foie gras every year — one of France's greatest culinary treats — as do all of our French friends.
I suppose if I still lived in Exeter I would enjoy supermarket battery hens, artificially fed pork and farm-bred salmon.
Does Devon deserve Michael Caines? I think not.
Mike Bettsworth
Le Roule, 16460,
St Sulpice de Ruffec,
France
Comments
by Doc, Torre
Tuesday, December 16 2008, 10:16AM
“I'm not a member of the group campaigning to have foie gras taken off the restaurant menu, but I was very pleased to sign the petition when I came across it. How an animal can 'enjoy' having a pipe forced down its throat until its liver becomes enlarged escapes me.
I wonder what the outcry would be if a dog or a cat was being force-fed in this way?
Fortunately, I'm not alone in seeing foie gras as cruel and unnecessary. It is banned from being produced in Britain, and the force-feeding of geese is also prohibited in Poland, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Israel. In 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill prohibiting both the production and the sale of foie gras in California, while Chicago has passed a bye-law preventing its sale.
I Chair an organisation that has taken 185 people out to Christmas dinner over the past few weeks, and we would certainly not patronise a restaurant that used cruelly-produced ingredients. If just one of our members objected to a venue on grounds of cruelty, we would not use that restaurant. Accordingly, restaurants need to be aware that what they serve will influence their profit-margins as we become more aware.
A ban on the sale of foie gras in the United Kingdom would greatly reduce bird suffering, so well done to the Exeter campaigners for bringing this to our attention.”