[Vision2020] West of Paris

[whayman at adelphia.net]

This story ran this morning from the AP wire in the Spokesman Review:

PETA activist plans protest over foie gras 

Associated Press 
August 25, 2006

MOSCOW, Idaho – An animal rights activist is planning a protest in the next several weeks over a local restaurant's serving of foie gras, a French delicacy obtained by using tubes to force-feed ducks and geese until their livers become saturated with fat.

"There are still a lot of people out there who don't know what foie gras is or how it's made," said Megan Prusynski, a member of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Humane Society of the United States. "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."

 Francis Foucachon, who owns West of Paris, said protests against foie gras – French for fatty liver – will not stop him from offering it on his menu when he gets more in. He sold out the foie gras he had in the first week.

"This is a group that was looking for something to use against my business and they found something," he said. 

Foie gras is banned in Austria, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom.

In Chicago, city leaders banned the item earlier this month, and the California Legislature passed a phased ban last year on the sale and production of foie gras.

"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."

Matt Prescott, a spokesman for PETA, said Foucachon will not find such a supplier.