Carnival Cruise Line Dishes Up Cruelty

Animal protection organization asks Carnival to remove foie gras from their menu

San Rafael, Calif. – In Defense of Animals (IDA) today launched a new campaign, “Carnival Cruise Lines Dishes Up Cruelty,” urging the world’s largest cruise line to stop serving foie gras, one of the world’s cruelest dishes. Carnival serves foie gras on their ships to exotic destinations, but there is nothing exotic about foie gras. French for “fatty liver,” it has long been known by animal advocates as “the delicacy of despair.”

To produce foie gras, ducks and geese are force fed through long metal pipes shoved down their throats, and up to four pounds of grain are pumped into their stomachs two or three times a day. Pipes can puncture the birds’ throats, causing them to bleed to death. The barbaric practice of foie gras production causes the liver to swell to over 10 times its normal size, leaving the birds on the verge of organ failure and death. Many are too ill to even stand.

The violent force-feeding process used on foie gras farms results in a death rate 20 times higher than that on other factory farms. The increased deaths for birds are directly attributed to organ rupture and heart failure. Additionally, ducks raised for foie gras must withstand cramped, filthy conditions for the duration of their short lives.

The ducks and geese on foie gras farms are housed without access to swimming water. To remain healthy, they need to be able to immerse themselves in water. Contact with water on these farms is so limited that the ducks cannot adequately clean their nostrils and eyes, which can lead to blindness.

“These animals are tortured to death for a delicacy appetizer. There is simply no room for this practice in a civilized society,” said Dr. Elliot Katz, president and founder of IDA. “Sick, suffering birds don’t conform to the ‘fun times’ depicted in Carnival Cruise ads.”

Public outrage at the cruelty of the foie gras industry has resulted in bans of the product in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Israel, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. In the U.S., California’s law banning the production and sale of foie gras takes effect in 2012.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 1, 2010

Contacts:  Hope Bohanec, 415-448-0058, hope@idausa.org
Elliot M. Katz, DVM, 415-448-0075, emk@idausa.org

Photos available upon request.