June 14, 2004
Dear Assemblymember:
On behalf of JVNA and our members in California,
I urge you to support S.B. 1520, legislation to end
the inhumane force-feeding of geese and ducks for
the production of foie gras. The JVNA position is
based on Jewish teachings on compassion to animals
and the fact that foie gras production has already
been outlawed by many European countries, including
the U.K, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany,
Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
On August 11, 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court made
a landmark decision that banned the force-feeding
of geese and ducks, effective in 2005, for the production
of foie gras, as a violation of Israel's animal cruelty
laws. This ruling conforms to the position of major
Ashkenazic and Sephardic rabbinical authorities in
Israel, including Rabbis Zvi Pesach Frank and Eliezer
Waldman of the previous generation, and Rabbis Ovadia
Yosef and Shear Yashuv Cohen, among today's chief
rabbis. As the judges indicated, to produce this pate
"delicacy," birds are force fed enormous
amounts of grain through a pressurized pipe shoved
down their throats, leading to degenerative diseases
of the liver.
Since so many countries have already banned the production
of foie gras, it is time that the U.S. follows suit.
This would be consistent with Judaism's teachings
on tsa'ar ba'alei chayim, the Torah mandate
to avoid causing pain to animals, and with teachings
about compassion in Judaism and other religions.
Rabbi David Rosen, Orthodox rabbi and former Chief
Rabbi of Ireland, stated: "It should be obvious
that pate de foie gras is produced in a manner that
is in complete contravention of the Torah's prohibition
of causing tsa'ar ba'alei chayim - pain to animals.
Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the Noda Bi-Yehuda, clarifies
that causing any cruelty to an animal while alive
is a desecration of this prohibition and that if food
can be obtained in a manner that does not involve
additional pain and one chooses to obtain such through
causing pain to an animal, one desecrates a Torah
prohibition. Pate de foie gras is obtained through
the willful desecration of a Torah prohibition and
any truly God-revering Jew will not partake of such
a product, which is an offense against the Creator
and His Torah."
Whether you are Jewish or not, please support S.B.
1520. Thank you.
