Sonoma Foie Gras Fails
in Motion to Remove Cruelty Case to Rural Town
For Immediate Release
APRL press release, March 2, 2004 Sonoma, Ca -- A state court judge
has just issued his ruling that the animal cruelty lawsuit against
Sonoma Foie Gras will not be sent to San Joaqin County. The company--which
has been exposed force feeding its ducks to the point of organ
rupture--had hoped to move the case to Farmington, where the
force feeding operation is located. A judge there might have
been more likely to tolerate such harsh treatment of animals
than judges in Sonoma, where the case will now be heard. The
lawsuit by the Animal Protection & Rescue
League (APRL) and In Defense of Animals (IDA) alleges that the force-feeding
results in extreme, unmitigated pain and suffering as well as crippling injuries
to the ducks, and that the owners of Sonoma Foie Gras are in violation of several
sections of the California penal code on animal welfare. A n APRL investigation
of the farm last year revealed ducks too weak and overweight to defend themselves
as rats gnawed on their wounds, documented at www.APRL.org . "These
people are cramming huge amounts of food down the throats of ducks while there
are children starving, simply so that diners can pay twenty dollars per ounce
for a densely fatty appetizer," states Kath Rogers, an APRL spokesperson. "Their
behavior is not only extremely cruel to animals, but anti-social as well." Attorneys
for APRL point out that there was no sound legal basis for the company thinking
it could get the cased removed to San Joaqin County, just as there is no
legal basis for thinking that cramming pipes down a ducks throats
to bloat their livers is not in violation of anti-cruelty laws. A powerful Sacramento lawmaker recently decided to
take his own action against the practice, by introducing bill SB
1520, which would ban the production and sale of foie gras in the
state of California. Over a dozen other nations have already banned
the controversial force feeding practice, and a bill introduced
in New York seeks to shut down the only other foie gras farm in
the U.S.
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United Poultry Concerns, Inc.