Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/foiegras/

Imagine being force fed the equivalent of 30 boxes of mac and cheese for a month.

This is the life that foie gras ducks are forced into, with little choice but to submit and die.

Foie gras production involves ducks or geese being intubated with unsanitary and uncomfortable machinery that force feeds them corn mush for up to a month, reports Food Unfolded.

The sheer mass of the corn mush shoved down the birds throats can be enough to rupture the esophagus, cause internal bleeding, and kill the animal, the Humane Society reports.

Birds have even exploded from this practice.

According to veterinary pathologist Dr. Marianne Heimann, “the liver steatosis caused by ‘gavage’ is a pathological process that shows itself first by a fatty degeneration of the hepatic cells and then by necrosis. The fatty liver cannot be seen as normal. It is a categorical sign of a state of illness with clinical symptoms.”

Yet, foie gras production continues, the goal is a duck or goose with a liver at least 6 times average size, as indicated by an industry standard. Many more are engorged to 10 times their average size.

The span of life for animals forced into foie gras production is short, just as they are filled with torture and abuse. The European Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare maintains that constant handling by humans, the damaging and distressing effects of esophageal intubation, and injections of such large volumes of food at one time are each cruel and deadly procedures on their own.

But it takes all of that and more in foie gras production.

While the U.S. is a major producer of foie gras, it has faced many legal challenges within United States’ courts.

The current cost of suffering is too great to wait for congressional inspiration. Click below and help us tell the USDA and the FDA to ban the import and production of foie gras in the United States.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog