Four Paws launches new campaign against stuffing fattening
Although stuffing has been banned in Switzerland for over 40 years, more than 200 tons of foie gras are imported every year. The animal welfare organization Vier Pfoten wants to educate with the new poster campaign and bring the animal cruelty associated with foie gras into the light.
Both trade and consumption of and with foie gras are flourishing in this country, because with more than 200 tons of foie gras imports every year, Switzerland is among the disgraceful top 5 largest foie gras importers worldwide. Vier Pfoten wants to counteract this and raise awareness on a large scale about the animal cruelty behind this supposed delicacy. On the occasion of World Anti-Foie Gras Day, the animal welfare organization is launching its new poster campaign and would like to encourage consumers to critically question their own consumption.
Status quo
In winter 2018/19, Vier Pfoten, together with the French-speaking Swiss organization Stop Gavage Suisse, commissioned a comprehensive survey on the subject of foie gras. The Swiss people speak clear words: more than three out of four people consider the production method of foie gras to be animal cruelty - and yet just under one in three people consumes foie gras at least once a year, mostly at Christmas. The fact that there is also animal-friendly produced foie gras is unfortunately a tragic misconception here, because stuffing is always associated with enormous animal suffering.
Even once a year is once too many
Even the supposedly negligible one-off consumption of foie gras at Christmas, for example, poses a major animal welfare problem. For Swiss consumption alone, an estimated one million ducks and geese suffer annually. Four Paws therefore appeals to consumers to reject foie gras consistently and without exception. Because: even once a year is once too much!
Hands off Magret and other stuffing mast products
It is also particularly alarming that a large majority of respondents do not know that magret (mostly de canard) is also produced by means of stuffing - and thus supports this to a large extent unknowingly and unwillingly. The labeling of goose and duck breast is crucial, because a distinction is made between fillet (unstuffed) and magret (stuffed).
Beware also of confit, graisse and gésier - these products also often come from stuffed fattening. Not to be forgotten, in addition to the meat, are the downs, because these can also come from stuffed (and live plucked) animals.
What is stuffing mast?
For foie gras, magret & co., ducks and geese are force-fed - literally stuffed - in the most brutal way until they almost die of exhaustion and are usually kept in the tiniest of cages. For up to three weeks and up to four times a day, a tube or hose is thrust deep into their esophagus and food is pumped directly into their stomachs. At slaughter maturity, their abnormally fatty livers weigh ten times their normal weight. Severe esophageal injuries, respiratory distress, and a mortality rate ten to twenty times higher often accompany this cruel practice.
