So....What Exactly is FOIE GRAS (pronounced “fwah grah”)?

Alderman Joe Moore (Ward 49) has introduced an ordinance to prohibit the sale of foie gras in Chicago. Foie gras, which is French for "fatty liver," is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds have up to 4 pounds of food per day pumped into their stomachs through long metal pipes that are shoved down their throats. The cruel ordeal often causes severe injuries that make it painful or even impossible for birds to drink. Those who survive the feedings suffer from a painful illness that causes their livers to swell to eight to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to walk and are reduced to pushing themselves across their cages with their wings. The birds have difficulty standing, and they tear out their own feathers and cannibalize each other as a result of stress. Many of them die. When the birds are slaughtered, their livers are sold for foie gras.

and now...what can you do?
The foie gras industry is lobbying hard against this ordinance, and the Chicago City Council will pass it only if its members hear that their constituents care about this issue. In local politics, just a few polite and persuasive calls and letters can make a big difference. Please call or write to your alderman today and ask him or her to vote for Alderman Joe Moore’s proposed ordinance to ban foie gras. If you get a particularly helpful response, please email PETA e-mail us to let us know which alderman you spoke with and what he or she said. Please also consider setting up a meeting with your alderman to ask her or him to support this ordinance. Such meetings from constituents are extremely powerful, and you don’t need any expertise or experience. If you’d like to find out more about meeting with your alderman, please e-mail In Defense of Animals and someone there will be happy to walk you through it. To find out how to contact your alderman, call the Chicago City Council at 312-744-3081 or visit the City of Chicago Web site. You can also view a ward map of Chicago.

And what about everywhere else?
Contact your representatives to let them know that you are against this practice. Cite the Chicago alderman and tell them you want your reps to do as he did. It might seem like a pointless task, but these guys rarely hear from the public, so when they do, they pay attention.

And finally....it's just a bird, who cares?
As stewards of this world we should care. We do not base our treatment of others on their intellect or ability to communicate. We treat others, as feeling human beings, as we would like to be treated. Animals have the same central nervous system as we do. They feel in the exact same way that we do. We should care because what we do to the weakest, most vulnerable among us, we do to Christ. Process that.