| Media NEWS
RELEASE For Immediate Release: March 3, 2004
Contact: Richard H. Schwartz,
President, Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
JEWISH GROUP URGES BANNING OF FORCE-FEEDING
OF DUCKS AND GEESE IN
THE UNITED STATES The Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) urges
that the force-feeding of geese and ducks for the production of foie gras be banned
by California and New York State legislative bodies. 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 Czech Republic,
Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and
the U.K. 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 pâté"delicacy,"
the birds are force fed enormous amounts of grain through a pressurized pipe shoved
down their throats. As a result the birds develop 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. California Senate President
Pro Tem John Burton, introduced a measure in February, 2004, that would ban foie
gras from being produced and consumed in California. Burton stated: "We just
shouldn't be cramming a tube down a duck's throat and forcing in food to make
foie gras. It's an inhumane process that other countries have sensibly banned.
I'm pleased California will be next on the list." Legislation has
also been introduced in New York State to ban the production of foie gras. Assembly
bill 1821 and Senate Bill 5153 would amend the state animal cruelty law to make
it "unlawful to force feed a bird, by hand or machine, for the purpose of
fatty enlargement of the bird's liver." Since California and New York
are the only states that produce foie gras, the JVNA urges members of the California
and New York State Senatea and State Assemblys to follow the lead of Israel and
other countries by addressing the cruelty involved in producing foie gras, and
by passing legislation that would ban its production. 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, rabbinic advisor to the JVNA and
a contemporary Israeli 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 (see Maimonides, Yad Chazakah, Hilchot Rozeah, Ch. 13,
M. 8). Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the Noda Bi-Yehuda, clarifies that causing any
cruelty to an animal while alive is a desecration of this prohibition (Noda Bi-Yehuda,
Yoreh Deah, Response No. 10) 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. Pâté 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."
###Jewish
Vegetarians of North America represents a broad coalition of rabbis, scholars,
experts, and active members of the Jewish community in advocating vegetarianism
as a Jewish ideal. |
