Force Feeding of Animals - It Is Animal Cruelty! Force-feeding has become a contributing factor to the issue of animal cruelty. This practice is most commonly used on ducks and geese, and is inhumane in all ways possible. The procedure uses a tube that is inserted into the throat, followed by the pumping of food into the birds to the point where they suffer from various diseases and conditions, which all too often becomes fatal. The purpose of this practice is to produce foie gras, which is French for “fat liver”, a food item produced from the livers of overfed ducks and geese. The process happens several times a day and causes the liver of the animal to expand to about 10 times the average size. An investigator for PETA did a study at Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York; they found that, “so many ducks died when their organs ruptured from overfeeding that workers who killed fewer than 50 birds per month were given a bonus”. Swollen organs, sores, lesions, and bruising are just a few of the possible health conditions that affect ducks and geese being force-fed. Other risks include: injury from handling and tube insertion, trauma from “high temperature corn mash”, hemorrhaging and inflammation of the neck, asphyxia from improperly forced food into the trachea, various organ and liver diseases, parasitism, fibrosis, hypoglycemic coma, and lameness. According to the Humane Society, the procedure consists of: holding a bird by the neck, drawing the animal towards the feeding pipe or tube, which is approximately 20-30 cm (8-12 in) in length, thrusting the pipe down the bird’s throat, and initiating the food pumping process. The organization reports that, “In one scientific investigation, 9 out of 144 force-fed ducks died and mortality increased with the length of the force-feeding period imposed in the study”. Force-feeding ducks and geese as a means to produce foie gras is animal cruelty at its extremity. Not only are the birds severely injured and traumatized, they are kept in “housing” so small that they cannot move, they are given limited to no lighting, deprived of water, and mutilated from having their beaks and nails cut. The treatment that these birds receive is torture, and if they survive the diseases and conditions they will shortly be slaughtered. The inhumanity imposed on innocent ducks and geese for the production of foie gras is horrific. These farm factories must be held responsible for their actions, and the practice of force-feeding must be stopped immediately.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 10:13:16 +0000
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