Sao Paulo has Banned the Production and Sale of Foie Gras

Production and sale of foie gras made from the fatty liver of force-fed ducks and geese will be banned by a law published on Friday in the city’s official gazette. The law will take effect in 45 days to give restaurant owners time to adapt. Guilherme Carvalho, one of the directors of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society hailed the new law as a “major accomplishment.“, and that the next step will be to ban foie gras in the rest of Brazil. Foie gras is French for “fatty liver” when the liver of a duck or goose is fattened by force-feeding corn with a feeding tube, a process also known as gavage—a practice so cruel that it has been banned in more than a dozen countries, including Argentina, Israel, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. Animal Equality has carried out investigations in farms in Spain and France, showing the cruelty of this so-called “delicacy”.

“I witnessed something: the kernels sprung from the crops of the ducks at the time that they were stabbed to death. The animals were literally saturated with the food that they had been forced to swallow. The scene was pretty nasty, as the corn was mixed with blood that was splattered on the walls and floor, forming a strange mixture.” — July, 26th 2011. Induànec, Bescanó (Girona). Diary of the investigator.