Sorry for taking so long with this, but we’ve finally closed the duck name poll. The winning name is “Marty Gras”!
All of the results can be seen on our website.
Thanks for voting.
Here’s a video of Marty dancing up a storm at Justice Rocks over the weekend.
We’ve gotten quite a few votes for a name for our new duck mascot. So far the top contenders are Quackers, Puddles, and Harmony. Marty Gras, Webster, and Count Duckula are still in the running.
What is your favorite? If you haven’t voted yet, head on over to our main website and vote. Voting will end on this coming Friday (July 31).
Once the duck has a name he’ll be much more comfortable being out on the street spreading the word about how awesome ducks are and how terrible it is to keep them away from water (not to mention that awful force-feeding) and confined indoors.
Previous posts about the duck:
Our duck was out again today on Commercial Drive. Here’s a short video:
He escaped from a foie gras farm, where he was force-fed twice a day. His not-so-lucky brothers were force-fed until their livers swelled up to about 10x their normal size. All this for a delicacy that benefits no one.
We’re searching for a name for the duck. If you have any suggestions, email them to me. We’ll be putting up a poll so that everyone can vote on the most popular submissions. We’ve gotten “Marty Gras”, “Quackers”, “Puddles”, and more.
Please help!
We recently got a duck mascot costume (thanks to NARN for the info on that) so we decided to take him out for the afternoon on Canada Day.
Saying hello
Ducks can dance!
He hasn’t been named yet. If you have any ideas for a name, email your ideas to Becci. We’ll select the top choices and let everyone vote!
Hooray! This duck is free!
In 2 hours we gave out all of our 500 leaflets. Being out with a costume of any animal is such fun, since people just love to take pictures and have their pictures taken with the mascot. Little kids loved the duck!
His entourage passed out leaflets and talked about the issues of force-feeding and foie gras production.
The staff of Lush are awesome!
It’s nice to do a positive about foie gras. So often they turn into negative sorts of events. The people who make and sell foie gras (there are many who sell it here in Vancouver) try to make themselves out to be the victims, but the real victims are the ducks who are force-fed for no reason other than gluttony.
Peace
A week ago the Ottawa Animal Defense League got some media coverage about their foie gras campaign. One article, Foie gras ban does little to address cruelty by Joanne Chianello ran in The Ottawa Citizen on May 10, 2009. While this was a reasonably balanced article, the closing couple of paragraphs seemed somewhat odd to me.
In the grand scheme of groceries, outlawing foie gras is a marginal gesture, unless it leads to a wider — and, frankly, unlikely — candid conversation about where the rest of our meat comes from.
The real question, then, is: Will the possible disappearance of foie gras mark the beginning of a big debate, or the end of a little one?
This confuses me because the beginning of the article does actually mention that many of the restaurants are “[committed] to using more ethically raised meat.” This in itself would seem to indicate that the debate is already happening. If it weren’t, why would these restaurants even be using words like “ethical” and “humane” or be trying to source locally and organically?
Additionally, the author ignores (or neglects to see) the debate over meat production in the United States, with the passing of Proposition 2 in California and other states moving to enact similar legislation. Proposition 2 will essentially prohibit the use of battery cages, veal crates, and sow stalls. This resolution was passed by a 2/3 vote.
Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has been on the NY Times bestseller list for about 90 weeks. The debate about food sources has led to the growth of farmers markets in cities across the country.
Additionally, the environmental impacts of animal agriculture are becoming much more well known and discussed in the mainstream media.
Foie gras campaigns are simply a part of the larger debate. One only has to look at the campaigns of larger organizations like Farm Sanctuary and The Humane Society to see that this is indeed the case.
Perhaps Ms. Chianello was just trying to make a point about the small amount of impact campaigns against foie gras may have? If so, she is certainly letting her own opinions colour her reporting. How genuine was her question?
When we left our house this morning I saw this pair of Mallard ducks on the lawn right across the street.
She is sleeping with her head tucked under her wing while he keeps watch.
He stayed really calm but checked us out and watched us until we were gone.
I haven’t ever seen ducks in our neighborhood before, so this was a very rare and exciting treat.
Do you ever see ducks or other wild animals around where you live?
Ducks huddled as far from the feeder as possible. Imagine being subjected to something this invasive against your will everyday for three weeks? For no good reason?
I just (finally) read the pro-foie gras article published in the Village Voice. It’s about the author’s visit to Hudson Valley Foie Gras farm, and includes an extensive slideshow of photos of the farm.
I find it interesting that looking at these photos, and the conditions these ducks are raised and force-fed in, makes me even more convinced that foie gras is a pretty bad thing. I wonder if this is just that I’m ready to be convinced of my own point of view? Which makes me think that the pro-foie gras side would be pretty much the same, convinced by whatever they see that foie gras is ok.
But what about the unconvinced? What will they think about these photos and the article? I’m curious to see.
An important point about this article is that it’s about Hudson Valley, which is somewhat different than the farms that produce foie gras here in Canada. They keep their ducks in small group pens for the force-feeding period, which lasts 21 days. Here in Canada the farms confine the ducks in individual cages for the force-feeding period, which lasts 14 days. This individual confinement seems to be the standard here and in France and Belgium. (See the EU report…)
Hudson Valley keeps the ducks in huge barns on wood shavings for the first portion of their lives. At no point do the ducks have access to water to swim in. This for me is really enough to have huge problems with any form of duck farming. Ducks have evolved as waterfowl. Taking a duck away from the water seems like it would be like making a chicken live their whole life IN the water. It’s just not natural.
The use of wire-bottomed cages to confine the ducks (in groups) is another point against this type of farming. Wire-bottomed cages are a convenience for the farmer, as they cut down on time required for cleaning of bedding. For 21 days these ducks are kept without bedding resting only on wire. These are animals evolved to swim and fly, not to sit in one place for three weeks on a wire mesh. That they are sitting completely still is sad, as ducks in the wild spend their days wandering about, searching for food and socializing.
You can see when the ducks are slaughtered that their undersides are filthy and discoloured. This is likely because they cannot reach their undersides to clean themselves due to their obesity.
Frankly, since foie gras is not something that we need to eat, not by any stretch of the imagination, how can we justify doing any of this to ducks? Taste alone can’t justify this.
Also, here in BC, the BC Organic standards and the SPCA Certification prohibit the use of confinement systems. Why? Because according to these standards, their living spaces should allow for as close to a natural lifestyle as possible. Confining and force-feeding is diametrically in opposition to this. It’s completely shocking that restaurants that take pride in supporting local and humane farms also support farms that utilize intensive farming practices like these foie gras farms.
The crowding of ducklings into barns, with a bedding of wood shavings. Nothing like a duck's natural habitat.
These are the confinement pens where the ducks are kept in groups. Imagine living in your cubicle with 5 other people for three weeks, unable to leave. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?
Kept on a wire mesh floor, the ducks huddle together (this is what ducks do when they are afraid). What in the world does "fairly clean" mean? How dirty is acceptable?
You can see how filthy the duck's underside is.
More examples of just how dirty the ducks are. Is one bleeding?
Note: The photos are all from the slideshow that accompanies the article.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Almost a year ago, the owner of Cru, Mark Taylor, had sent me an email saying that foie gras was permanently off their menu. However, they have continued to serve foie gras occasionally and decided to put it on their special Valentine’s Day menu.
This is yet another example of the lack of integrity shown by these “business” owners. (I previously wrote about it in this post.) What are their words worth?
We gathered a dozen people or so for this protest, which was the Vancouver portion of an international day of protest against foie gras organized by Farm Sanctuary, asking people to share some of the love with animals on this Valentine’s Day.
We had a really good response from the people walking by, and collected a fair number of signatures for the petition to ban foie gras in Vancouver. People across the street at the bus stop kept asking what was going on and we had to send some people over to their side of the road to give out information and collect signatures.
After the protest a bunch of us went to Hon’s on Robson for some delicious cheap Chinese food. I love Hon’s.
You may wonder, “Why can’t we just ask people to stop serving foie gras and attempt to convince them to use alternative ‘products?’”
In my experience, business owners and chefs will say whatever they can to get rid of protesters and avoid trouble. But often they don’t mean it, and will continue to do what they’ve said they’ll stop as soon as everyone’s back is turned.
For instance, last spring, West Restaurant told the media that they were going to stop serving foie gras in their restaurant. They managed to get some good publicity out of it, but then just a couple of months later foie gras was secretly back on their menu.
Meinhardt’s Market had also pulled all foie gras from their shelves. They managed to keep it off until recently. But they are definitely selling it again. Why? Is there so much demand that they are willing to go back on their word?
In May of last year, Mark Taylor of Cru wrote to me and said that “Foie is off the menu, with no return.” I obviously took this to mean that he had removed foie gras from the menu and would not be serving it anymore. But then I just saw that he has it on his small plates menu during the Vancouver dine-out. Plus it’s on his Valentine’s Day menu. Once again, what good is his word?
This reminds me of a passage in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail:
Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham’s economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants—for example, to remove the stores’ humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained.
The breaking of promises by business owners has historical precedent, albeit a shameful one.
There are many examples of the dishonesty of restaurant owners, chefs, businesses, etc. They obviously have no concern for the animals whose lives are taken. It’s quite obvious that businesses are not capable of regulating themselves, if no one’s word has any value anymore.
Dishonesty is rampant in the animal exploitation industries. Huge efforts are made to conceal or distort the truth. The only viable recourse is to work to legally prohibit the sale of products that are produced through cruel and inhumane methods.
This is not to say that some businesses have not taken stands and stuck with them. John Bishop stopped serving foie gras and veal in his restaurant because both are wrong. Pino Posterraro stopped serving foie gras and has stood by his decision. Neither of these pillars of Vancouver’s restaurant community see the need to lie and deceive. Honestly seeking and facing the truth is a virtue.
I wonder how the honest restaurant owners and chefs feel about the level of deceit practiced by their colleagues?
To some, foie gras represents the ultimate in luxury food. In reality, it is one of the most extreme forms of cruelty still permitted today, and yet it appears on the menus of many of Vancouver’s finest restaurants.
We were asked to write an article for the Straight.com politics blog about our foie gras campaign. You can read it here:
Foie gras is a cruel dish better left unserved | Straight.com.
Please leave a comment on the article, and also let me know what you think of it.
