"Quirky bills try to halt fowl moves" in Illinois

Foie gras in on the front page of the Metro Section of the Monday, March 21 Chicago Tribune. The article, headed "Quirky bills try to halt fowl moves" looks at a few bill before the Illinois legislature. This is what is says about the foie gras bill:

"Republicans also have introduced bills from off-the-beaten path.

"Sen. Kay Wojcik of Schaumburg enjoys haute cuisine as much as the next connoisseur. But she says anyone would be sickened by the force-feeding of geese and ducks that goes into the making of foie gras, the fatty livers of those birds. Although the only known U.S. foie gras factories are in California and New York, she is sponsoring a bill that would never allow them to operate in Illinois.

California recently enacted a similar ban, and one animal rights activist reports that foie gras makers might be looking to move into the flyover states.

'We've heard some rumblings that foie gras farms are thinking of moving to other states, so we just want to close the door to that,' said Gene Bauston, president of Farm Sanctuary, a New York-based farm animal rescue and protection agency.

Wojcik said she considers the measure to be a 'special interest' bill--maybe not as significant as school funding reform, but important just the same.

'It's apples and oranges,' she said. 'You can't compare it.'

"Wojcik said she has never tried foie gras, which is often served as a pate.

"I do make my own pate, but I don't force-feed the duck,' she said. 'I don't do foie gras.'"

The whole article is on line at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0503210151mar21,1,5347425.story

The suggestion that California recently enacted a similar bill is misleading since if one goes to the full text of the Illinois bill (available at http://tinyurl.com/4mwlo ) one sees an amendment that "Deletes the prohibition on selling products in Illinois that are the result of force feeding a bird to enlarge the liver." One cannot compare the impact of a law that bans both production and sale of foie gras with one that bans only its production, in a state where it is not produced.

The article, however, gives us an opportunity to educate readers of this huge newspaper about the egregious cruelty behind a delicacy that has been banned in other countries, and in California, but will unfortunately not be banned by this bill in Illinois. You can learn more about the issue at: http://www.nofoiegras.org/ and send a letter to the Chicago Tribune at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/letters/chi-lettertotheeditor.customform OR http://tinyurl.com/4lsug

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)