Foie gras wars continue; Activist arraigned in Sullivan County court

Posted 8/21/12

FERNDALE, NY — Hudson Valley Foie Gras (HVFG), which is the largest producer of foie gras in the country and is located in Ferndale, was the subject of a story in the New York Times on February 22, …

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Foie gras wars continue; Activist arraigned in Sullivan County court

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FERNDALE, NY — Hudson Valley Foie Gras (HVFG), which is the largest producer of foie gras in the country and is located in Ferndale, was the subject of a story in the New York Times on February 22, and the central question of the piece was whether or not activist Amber Canavan stole two of the large ducks that produce the foie gras, or fatty liver.

Everyone seems to agree that sometime in 2011, late at night, Canavan walked into a facility where the ducks are force-fed, and took video of the operation. The video wound up on a website of the Animal Protection and Rescue League, with a narration deriding the HVFG operation as being harmful to the animals.

That debate about whether force-feeding harms the ducks has been ongoing for many years, but in this case it was not just criticism of the practice of force-feeding, but also, perhaps, “rescuing” a couple of the ducks. The video on the website shows several women placing a couple of ducks in a large plastic bin, and later that bin is carried off as the narrator says, “The investigators were able to rescue a few ducks from the torture of foie gras production in both New York and California…. ”

Sullivan County District Attorney Jim Farrell indicted Canavan on February 11 for the four-year-old incident, and the indictment says she stole two ducks from HVFG. But in an interview, Canavan said the video at the center of the controversy was shot at two different facilities and at various times. She said the footage showing ducks being placed into a bin, which was later removed from the facility, was shot at Sonoma Foie Gras in California, which is now closed, and she was never in that facility.

HVFG operations manager Marcus Henley said he is certain that the footage that shows the ducks being taken was shot in the HVFG facility.

Canavan said she was in HVFG in 2011, and she observed some of the birds to be in bad shape. A lawsuit was filed by an organization Canavan called an “animal legal defense group” against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, trying to compel them to enforce food safety laws against HVFG. As part of the proceedings, Canavan signed an affidavit saying when she was in HVFG, she, “observed sick animals, animals with untreated wounds… and caked in their own feces.”

Ultimately the lawsuit was dismissed because the court said the group did not have standing to sue, and after the dispute, and four years after Canavan entered the HVFG property, charges were brought. Farrell did not return a call seeking comment.

HVFG operations manager Marcus Henley has vigorously defended the treatment received by the ducks, which are said to be raised cage-free. The website says, “Our trained caretakers spend as much as four times as much time caring for each animal as is the case in other foie gras farms.”

This reporter toured the facility with other reporters several years ago, and did not see the conditions described by Canavan. She said the force-feeding period only lasts for a few weeks, and the tour could have been arranged just after a cleaning, when a new group of ducks was brought into the force-feeding area.

Canavan, who attends the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse and is due to graduate in May, said she does not yet know when the trial will take place.

The California ban

On another front, a California ban on the sale of foie gras produced by force-feeding the ducks by inserting a tube down their throats was overturned on January 7.

The state legislature passed the ban in 2004, but it did not take effect until 2012. HVFG and various partners sued over the ban, and U.S. District Judge Steven Wilson said the ban was not legal because it interfered with federal regulations regarding the inspection and sale of poultry, and federal legislation in this case trumps state legislation.

A month later California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said she would appeal the ruling, and she filed a notice with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The plaintiffs issued a joint statement saying, “We’re very confident that the district court’s judgment will be upheld on appeal. The decision was based on the simple fact that, in the field of meat and poultry, federal law is supreme. California does not have the right to ban wholesome, approved poultry products, whether it’s foie gras or fried chicken.”

Animal rights activists are just as confident that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will overturn the judge’s ruling.

The ban on the production of foie gras by force feeding remains n effect.

In the meantime, the sale of foie gras is once again legal in California and sales to that state make up a large percentage of the overall sales from HVFG. Henly said the overturning of the ban on sales allowed the company to hire 20 new employees.

There are only two producers of foie gras in the United States and both are located in Sullivan County.

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