Foie gras is grossly enlarged liver made by force feeding ducks with long metal pipes. The Animal Protection and Rescue League's latest investigation into this barbaric industry can be seen at www.stopforcefeeding.com.

California banned sale and production of foie gras in 2004, with an eight year phaseout period to allow producers time to find a more humane production method. As they have not done so, the law will take effect July 1, 2012.

Less than 1% of restaurants in the state have ever served this barbaric product. Over 100 restaurants have removed it, and only about 300 still do. Wolfgang Puck recently wrote a letter to all of the restaurants still peddling this cruelty and asked them to stop.

I have visited the two main U.S. foie gras producers--one in CA and one in NY--on multiple occasions since 2002. I took the above picture in Hudson Valley Foie Gras just last year. These facilities are still force feeding ducks with long metal pipes, which after 2-3 weeks leaves them panting for breath and having difficulty standing and walking. Many ducks succumb before slaughter, and I have seen trash barrels full of dead ducks in both farms.

Every chef and restaurant listed in this petition is well aware of the cruelty but chooses to deny it, lying to their customers and to themselves. Any chef can look at a foie gras liver and see that it is 10 times the size of a normal liver and pale and white rather than compact and brown.

Any neutral third party who has examined the process of foie gras production finds it to be abhorrent. This includes the prestigious Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, animal welfare auditors from Whole Foods, independent vets and scientists.

Many chefs who serve foie gras claim to not support industrial factory farming practices, but then they point to the AVMA's non-position on foie gras as evidence of it being ok, even though the AVMA supports many extremely cruel practices--such as intensive confinement and forced molting--that these same chefs claim to be against.

The chefs who continue to serve this barbaric product of animal suffering are nothing more than hypocrites and liars. They are hacks for an industry that pumps ducks full of massive quantities of genetically modified corn so snobby foodies can feast on their diseased organs. They represent the WORST side of humanity.

It is ridiculous that we even have to have a law against FORCE FEEDING an animal with metal pipes to create a painfully distended liver. But this is exactly what laws and government are for--banning extreme deviant behavior (such as murder, rape, robbery, child abuse, animal cruelty etc.) that a small segment of society would engage in if there were not such a law.

Every restaurant this petition is addressed to should be BOYCOTTED and never eaten at again by any compassionate individual, as they have all been repeatedly informed of the cruelty they support and instead stand on the side of cruelty. These are sick and depraved individuals, and they defend their cruelty behind a facade of rationality just like any common psychopath.

If history has taught anything, it is that those who profit from suffering will use any rationalization to defend their industry, and this has been true from slavery to cigarettes. These chefs are no different from any common criminal, and they deserve to be exposed as the animal torturers that they are.