Pamela Anderson: French Speech Calling For Halt Of Foie Gras, Force-Fed Poultry Liver, Production
Yesterday, the French Green Party, EELV, which has had numerous members leave and witnessed the creation of a new rival party in 2015, as reported by RFI, organized a speech calling for the banning of the production of foie gras in France by actress Pamela Anderson. France’s National Assembly was the host of the event, according to the Local.
“As a Canadian, I am ashamed by the brutal clubbing of baby seals and thus I have empathy for many of the French citizens who also experience both shame and sadness at the misery suffered by these very sociable birds,” the Pamela Anderson France speech on foie gras was quoted. “Foie gras is not a healthy product and does not have a place in a civilized society. These ducks did not have a single day of happiness in their short lives.”
Foie gras is reported to be produced by force-feeding — called gavage — corn to ducks and geese, which is said to artificially fatten the birds’ livers. Foie gras is reported to be a delicacy in Europe and Asia. California banned the production and sale of foie gras in 2012, but a federal court later struck down the sales ban. The State of California is reported to be appealing the decision, according to France 24.
France is said to produce three-quarters of foie gras globally, amounting to near 5,000 tons in 2014.
Widely available photos of poultry being force-fed are seemingly reminiscent of farm workers filling vehicles with fuel. The birds can be seen with nozzles jammed to the backs of their wide-open mouths and held in place by workers, with the animals’ necks sticking out between the wire mesh of cramped cages.
Laurence Abeille, an MP with the Green Party in France, described foie gras production as “symbolic of the way we treat animals” and recent legislation passed in the French National Assembly said to recognize that animals involved in foie gras production are “likely to suffer.” In 2011, the European Union was reported to have passed legislation calling for individual cages for each bird and gave poultry producers until the end of 2015 to make their operations compliant. As a result, many foie gras producers have been reported to be converting their farms to accommodate free-range poultry.
The Hunting, Fishing, Nature and Traditions group reportedly took issue with Abeille’s invitation to Anderson to speak in France and described the Green MP as preferring “turkeys stuffed with silicon to good geese stuffed with maize from Landes and Perigord.”
Abeille was reported to respond by describing the group’s response as “particularly shocking, sexist, chauvinist,” and “misogynistic.”
French poultry farmers are already facing tough times, with many under a ban resulting from an outbreak of bird flu in the southwestern part of the nation; Anderson’s France National Assembly speech was described as “ruffling feathers.” Police were said to have been called in an attempt to control a throng of photographers unable to fit in the room where Anderson’s press conference was held. Under the current ban, farmers are permitted to continue to produce using adult birds but may not use chicks until their foie gras operations have been certified as being bird flu-free.
In addition to the French Green, EELV Party, the animal rights foundation organized by Bridgitte Bardot was reported to have helped to organize Anderson’s French press conference.
Bardot described the force-feeding of ducks and geese as an “absolutely outrageous barbarity” and denounced foie gras as a “festive” dish — fattened duck and goose liver is reported to be especially popular at Christmas and on other holidays.
In December, Japan, a big consumer of foie gras, was reported to have banned imports of France’s duck liver exports in response to the outbreak of the bird flu, or H5N1, virus. The virus was reported to have been detected at 69 foie gras operations in France’s southwest.
[Photo by Pascal Parrot/Getty Images]
