[Vision2020] West of Paris

[Megan Prusynski]

Thanks Saundra, I just read the article this evening. I did talk with  
Alexis at the Daily News yesterday. This is not exactly what he told  
me when I e-mailed him about removing foie gras from the menu. Looks  
like there is still work to do, but Mr. Foucachon will be hard- 
pressed to find a "humane" foie gras producer. Don't worry, I'm fully  
ready to educate him on why foie gras is an especially important  
issue. I realize there are tons of animal rights issues we could  
fight, such as factory farmed chicken (I've protested at Moscow's  
KFC), live lobsters (anyone know of a restaurant that serves them  
here, I'd be happy to talk to their owners), but as long as I've  
lived here at least, I have never seen foie gras served in Moscow.  
Anyone interested in helping me watch this issue and participate in  
demonstrations or protests if it goes back on the menu are welcome to  
contact me.

What I wanna know is, who would actually want to eat fatty diseased  
duck liver after knowing what it was they were eating? Foie gras is  
not a delicacy, it's a disease! Ewwwww...

~megan


Hi Megan & Visionaries:

The following article is from today's Daily News and seems to paint a
slightly different picture.  In particular, I take exception with Mr.
Foucachon's statement, "He wants local activists, who got their hands  
on an
outdated menu earlier this week, to know their threats of protest mean
nothing to him or his staff."

The "outdated" menu came directly from West of Paris' Web site the  
very day
I posted my concerns, not from some nefarious source.  And, we know  
from Mr.
Foucachon's comments right here on the Viz that he was aware of the
inhumanity of the product *before* he included it on West of Paris' menu
:-(((

Anyway, here's the article:

"Foie gras controversy hits Moscow
Activists up in arms over delicacy's inclusion on restaurant menu;  
item has
since been removed

By Alexis Bacharach Daily News staff writer
Published: 08-23-2006

Foie gras is no longer available at Moscow's West of Paris, but not  
for the
reasons one might think.

Restaurant owner Francis Foucachon sold out of the item his first  
week in
business.

He wants local activists, who got their hands on an outdated menu  
earlier
this week, to know their threats of protest mean nothing to him or his
staff.

"Here is the bottom line," he said. "I ordered a small amount just to  
see if
there was a demand in Moscow. It was such a huge success, we almost  
sold out
our first night."

Foie gras, French for fatty liver, is produced through a process of
force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers become saturated  
with fat.

Handlers insert tubes down the birds' throats and funnel pounds of  
cornmeal
into their stomachs several times a day.

Megan Prusynski, a local activist with People for the Ethical  
Treatment of
Animals and the Humane Society of the United States, said consumption of
foie gras went down in areas that provided focused education and  
outreach
programs.

With that in mind, she's teaming with local and national groups,  
including
Compassion Speaks at Washington State University, to organize  
protests in
Friendship Square later this month.

"There are still a lot of people out there who don't know what foie  
gras is
or how it's made," she said. "When I heard there was a restaurant in  
Moscow
serving it, I started talking to people about doing some kind of  
protest to
raise people's awareness - maybe get it banned."

More than a dozen countries, including Israel, Germany, the United  
Kingdom,
Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy, Poland and Denmark, have
outlawed the French delicacy.

In the United States, lawmakers are proposing bans at the state and
municipal levels.

The California Legislature passed a phased ban last year on the  
production
and sale of foie gras. Earlier this month, city leaders in Chicago  
banned
the controversial item from all menus in the city.

"The people complaining about foie gras have a point," Foucachon  
said. "The
way the birds are being stuffed is questionable, and I do believe it's
important to treat animals humanely. I will put foie gras on my menu  
again
when I find a producer that doesn't engage in force feeding."

PETA spokesman Matt Prescott said that's a victory for animal rights,
because Foucachon will never find what he's looking for.

"There are producers in the industry who say their foie gras is produced
humanely, but such claims are unsubstantiated," he said.  
"Investigations at
every foie gras farm has uncovered incidents of sick, dead and abused
animals. We've seen birds with holes in their throats and bloody beaks.
We've seen farms where dead birds were dangling from wires, dripping  
blood
on the live birds."

Video footage and photo galleries on PETA's Web site provide images  
of birds
with gaping wounds, images of blood-soaked cages and buckets full of
feathered corpses.

"No animal should be subject to torture," Foucachon said. "But these  
things
they're complaining about, I would suggest American chickens are  
treated far
worse than the ducks and the geese. Why aren't people writing letters  
and
staging protests at the grocery stores and restaurants that sell  
chicken?"

Why stop there, he asked?

Foucachon suggested protests against restaurants that cook live  
lobsters.

"This is a group that was looking for something to use against my  
business
and they found something," he said. "While I believe there are some  
valid
concerns here, I'm not going to stop serving what people want. I will  
put
foie gras on my menu again."

Alexis Bacharach can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 238, or by e- 
mail at
abacharach at dnews.com "
________

A Very Disappointed Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people  
to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra  
Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020  
forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020- 
bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Megan Prusynski
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 11:55 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] West of Paris

I also wanted to give you all an update on West of Paris and the foie  
gras
issue. Mr. Foucachon has decided to take foie gras off the menu and I  
would
like to congratulate and thank him for making the compassionate choice.
Hopefully his kind actions can be a way to educate people about just  
what
goes into foie gras production and how cruel it is. Thanks very much,  
Mr.
Foucachon and West of Paris. :)

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