ASSOCIATION OF VETERINARIANS FOR ANIMAL RIGHTS

American Veterinary MedicalAssociation Takes No Position on the Force Feeding of Ducks and Geese

At its annual convention this past July and after much debate, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) voted against two competing resolutions regarding the artificial force feeding of ducks and geese to produce foie gras, leaving the organization with no position on the issue.

One of the resolutions, submitted by AVAR for the fourth consecutive year, asked the AVMA to oppose the practice because it causes severe illness in the birds used. The competing resolution, submitted by the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Association the day before the meeting, asked the AVMA to approve force feeding to produce foie gras, in accordance with AVMA's welfare guidelines, as an acceptable animal agriculture practice.        

In its vote against the AVAR resolution, which was submitted on behalf of AVAR's members who are also AVMA members, the AVMA stated that there isn't enough science to back a stand against the practice.

The AVMA voted against the Connecticut VMA resolution in support of the practice because the AVMA doesn't have any guidelines on the practice to which the resolution referred.

"The science clearly shows that these animals are diseased and suffering," said Holly Cheever, DVM, AVAR's vice president. Cheever presented the resolution on behalf of AVAR, along with a substantial packet of scientific articles by international avian experts which support the statement that "foie gras is made from an adulterated organ in a diseased bird." "Our professional responsibility should be to protect animals from this type of cruel treatment," she said.

Foie gras is produced by restraining a bird, thrusting a pipe or tube into a bird's esophagus, and then forcing large amounts of corn meal mush into the bird's crop. The practice is repeated at least twice daily for several weeks until the bird's liver is swelled to 10-12 times normal size. The birds used to produce foie gras develop hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease, from the unnaturally large amount of food they must digest. Clinical signs of the disease include brain damage due to liver failure, dyspnea, anorexia, depression, and abdominal enlargement that accompanies such a grossly enlarged and abnormal liver. Additionally, avian experts who examined necropsies of birds who were force fed found a host of severe infections and evidence of trauma from the practice.

AVAR has worked to oppose the practice of force feeding to produce foie gras in other arenas as well and was the primary sponsor of legislation passed in 2004 which bans force feeding to produce foie gras, as well as sales of the product, beginning in 2012 in California.

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Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of the lowest  and basest of the people. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of
of an innate vile disposition.