Is it wrong to eat foie gras?

THE relationship between human beings and animals causes a lot of confusion in the modern world.

Do animals have feelings comparable to humans? Do they have souls that live after death? Is it wrong to eat animals or raise them in factory conditions? For an interesting examination of these and other questions, I recommend the website Tradition in Action and its posts here, here, here, here, here, and here. They include heated debate, but Tradition in Action firmly defends the essential inequality of human beings and animals. A piece by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira examines the U.N. Universal Declaration of the Rights of Animals. And in a 2003 post, still timely, Dr. Marian T. Horvat wrote on “eco-terrorism” at a farm where ducks were being raised for foie gras:

The four came by night, guided by the moonlight and fueled by a zeal for their mission. They crept silently to the padlocked door where the hostages were being held at a farm. The bolt-cutters weren’t strong enough for the new padlocks, so the slimmest of the rescuers, a young women, slid in through the air-conditioning system. She opened the door for the three others.

They entered, looked around, and sighed. What a dilemma! One hundred and fifty victims and only four could be freed. But the rescuers, made of stern stuff, faced the tragic option and chose. Then, flight, and success. Four hostages freed!

What am I describing? A special mission of a team of trained forces releasing hostages from some Islamic terrorist holding camp? No, you are reading the description of the “liberation” of four ducks. Yes, four ducks, from the Sonoma Foie Gras farm where they were being fed for commercial purposes. The team was a cell of self-proclaimed “duck freedom fighters,” and the “mission” makes up part of a recent wave of eco-terrorism sweeping across the country.

To be precise, they didn’t quite save all four. One overstressed canard couldn’t muster strength for the escape in the closed bin, its freedom train, and died several hours after the “rescue” at the vet’s. A rescuer sobbed, and the others consoled her: “At least he died here with people who love him and were trying to save him, and not those butchers.”

We have, then, an ensemble of criminal actions: a break and enter of private property at night; the theft of four animals and death of one; and worse, the threat of more of the same in the future. The activists justify their actions on ecological premises: no human has the right to enclose ducks and “murder” them just to satisfy the human palate with the delicious foie gras.

These activists, so bold that three of the four gave their names to the press, make no promises not to strike again. To the contrary, the terrorists proclaim, destruction is a necessary tactic, and the publicity it generates boosts the cause.

In fact, the goal is to try and inflict the maximum damage to entities violating animal rights. Cattle, pork, sheep, chicken farmers – none are immune today from intimidation, threats and violence from these environmental groups. And if you don’t have farm stock, don’t breathe too easily. Tomorrow they may “liberate” your dog, cat or canary.

The sad irony of this particular situation won’t be lost on my readers, who clearly see the double treatment dealt out generally by the press and public opinion:

• Smiles, lenience and tolerance for the rescuers of animals at duck farms;
• Frowns, harsh sentences and intolerance for the rescuers of human babies at abortion factories.

Still, all and all, it may seem to most just a relatively harmless, ridiculous escapade.

But California foie gras producer Guillermo Gonzalez and his partner-restauranteers Laurent Manique and Didier Jaubert aren’t laughing. [Read more here.]

— Comments —

Nicholas Pell writes:

Stewardship would seem to imply that animal cruelty is sinful. I would argue quite strongly that certain practices all too common in contemporary agri-business are cruel by their very nature, foie gras possibly (I hedge my language because I know little about this specific topic) being one of them. Factory farming is little more than the industrialisation of animal cruelty.

I believe it was Peter Hitchens who once said that you’ll never see an abortion on television. Note the push by big aggie to prosecute people who infiltrate slaughterhouses and show the squalid conditions and rampant cruelty within.

None of this requires the belief that animals and humans are equal. People are instinctively revolted by things like pigs kept in crates so small they can’t turn around. This is a morally healthy response that has nothing to do with whether or not it’s right or wrong to eat animals.

Laura writes:

Animals should be raised in open and natural conditions as much as possible. There’s some good discussion about that in the posts linked.

However, realistically, in order for that to happen in urban areas, people would have to spend a lot more for meat.

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