Presidential Duck ‘Pardon’? PETA Pushes POTUS to Ban Foie Gras

For Immediate Release:
November 19, 2022

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Ahead of the annual presidential turkey “pardon,” PETA sent a letter today to President Biden, asking him to also extend some mercy to geese and ducks by banning foie gras—produced by force-feeding birds until their livers become swollen—from the White House, as King Charles just did from all royal residences.

“If King Charles can ban tormented birds’ diseased livers from Buckingham Palace, we hope President Biden will follow his lead and keep foie gras out of the White House,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “Extending the holiday spirit of giving to geese and ducks would set an example of compassion for the whole country, and PETA would gladly send some delicious and decadent faux gras for the president and his chefs to sample.”

During foie gras production, several pounds of fat and grain are pumped into birds’ stomachs every day through tubes shoved down their throats, causing their livers to swell to up to 10 times their normal size. A PETA investigation into a foie gras producer in New York found that a single worker was expected to force-feed 500 birds three times each day—a pace that frequently left birds injured—and so many ducks died from ruptured organs due to overfeeding that workers who killed fewer than 50 birds a month were given a bonus. Other investigations into farms in the U.S. and Europe have revealed sick, dying, and dead animals, some with holes in their necks from overfeeding injuries.

Foie gras production is outlawed in more than a dozen countries as well as in California—where Vice President Kamala Harris, during her tenure as the state’s attorney general, successfully fended off attempts to reverse the state’s prohibition on the sale of foie gras—and numerous companies, including Costco, IKEA, Sam’s Club, Target, and Whole Foods, refuse to sell it.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat,” and which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—also encourages everyone to celebrate “ThanksVegan.” For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

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