A delegation of three MEPs on
Tuesday handed the European food safety commissioner a petition
with 320,000 signatures urging the EU to ban the production of
foie gras.
Fatty liver paté is obtained by force-feeding geese and
ducks by ramming pipes down their throats three times a day and
pumping up to four pounds of grain and fat into their stomachs,
according to petition co-sponsor People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA).
This causes their livers to grow to 10 times their normal
size, a practice which the petition signatories say is cruel and
causes disease in the animals.
The signatures were collected by four animal rights NGOs
and delivered by German independent leftist Stefan Eck, Dutch
animal rights party MEP Anja Hazekamp, and British Labour MEP
David Martin.
The petition calls for the practice to be banned in
Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary and Spain - the only five
countries in which it is still legal.
"We submitted a wealth of scientific evidence and formal
appeals against the violations committed in the production of
foie gras," said Peter Stevenson from Compassion in World
Farming NGO.
"The response has been pathetic," he added.
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