Foie Gras- Un article de Josée Legault The Gazette

[Animal 0]

Ducks suffer so that gourmets can dine


Quebec legislators are notoriously lax about the mistreatment of
animals

JOSEE LEGAULT
The Gazette

Friday, July 13, 2007

The film broadcast on many local news programs this week was
gruesome, maybe even gruesome enough to make a foie-gras fan think
twice about his favourite delicacy.

It showed ducks being force-fed grain until they threw up, heads
being yanked off live birds while others were thrown against
concrete walls or bled to death. And from the sound track, at least,
you got the impression the workers enjoyed this sadistic mess.

And at least some of the film was indeed shot at ...levages
PErigord, Canada's leading producer of the delicacy and a major
exporter.

The film was produced by the Global Action Network, an animal-rights
group that says a PErigord employee shot the images with a hidden
camera over a 12-week period.

When the SretE du QuEbec completes its investigation, whoever is
responsible should be prosecuted. But cruelty against animals is
something about which our legislators and justice system are
notoriously lax.

It's unlikely that there will be any boycott of foie gras any time
soon. The popularity of force-fattened duck and goose liver is up on
this continent. And with the government's own SociEtE gEnErale de
financement providing 43 per cent of PErigord's financing, no one
can expect the government to pass a law banning the stuff.

So it was surprising to hear PErigord's director-general, Emmanuel
Nassans, position himself as a victim of the Global Action Network,
which he said was out to destroy his company.

With the powerful SGF behind it and now, with the high-profile, high-
powered National Public Relations firm handling its PR campaign, it
looks like a fairly uneven battle between PErigord and the GAN. It
also doesn't help GAN that community-based lobbies are getting a lot
of bad press these days in Quebec, often caricatured as lunatics and
party poopers.

Nassans's statement at his press conference was a classic in today's
PR practices: Be appalled but deny it has anything to do with the
company.

Nassans said what was done was cruel, unacceptable and contrary to
the company's standards. He sacked the one employee he recognized
and ordered an inquiry.

But if it's contrary to company standards - and it surely is in
theory - why did it happen and why are there possibly other
employees involved? This leaves unanswered questions pertaining to
the hiring, training and supervision of employees.

...levages PErigord is based in St. Louis de Gonzague. It does some
of the production itself, but in 2004, Radio-Canada's La semaine
verte reported that PErigord had 19 subcontractors to whom it
supplied with ducklings and feed. Some of those subcontractors are
farmers who also do other forms of production.

In those cases, Rad-Can reported, it's the subcontractors who rear
the ducks, force feed them and slaughter them. If this footage was
shot on PErigord's own grounds, one wonders what happens at its
subcontractors' facilities. Does the mother company train and
supervise the subcontractors adequately?

This story is appalling and it should be a time to look at how the
foie-gras "business" is run here. But chances are it won't happen.
In the case of PErigord, foie gras is a lucrative, government backed
business. Chances are slim that Agriculture Canada and Quebec's
Ministry of Agriculture will ever step up their own rules and
supervision.

And what are the chances we'll look at force feeding itself? If that
method of production is banned in many European countries and some
American cities, it's because it can be considered cruel treatment.

When foie gras went from a delicacy for the rich produced in small
quantities to a product for the middle and the upper middle classes,
production was increased, with more risks of mistreatment of animals
for profit and expediency. Companies like PErigord are not small
family farms using traditional, small-scale methods.

But people can ask themselves if having animals force fed, or even
worse in some cases, is something they really want. And you needn't
be an "enraged vegetarian" - to quote a foie gras producer angered
by the possible impact of the footage - to ask yourself that
question.

The Gazette (Montreal) 2007

[animo-aequoanimo 0]

Si j'ai bien tout saisi, elle me semble honnête dans sa réflexion.

[Animal 0]

Oui Cé ! Et elle se demande comment ça doit se passer chez les sous-traitants, si des choses aussi horribles se sont passées chez le producteur Élevages Périgord lui-même ! Elle dénonce le laxisme concernant la cruauté envers les animaux ...