Mr. Mark Phillips, Executive Director
Wine Tasting Association
8501 Doter Drive
Alexandria VA 22308

Dear Mr. Phillips:

On behalf of our 10,000 members nationwide, I respectfully urge you, please, to cancel the foie gras seminar scheduled for October 18th. I am surprised and disappointed that the WTA would promote this cruelly produced diseased liver product. Force feeding of ducks and geese to distend their livers and make them mushy and greasy is inhumane, no matter what producers say.

We have ample documentation that the physiological and psychological stress of force feeding these birds induces pathologic changes in them. The birds can hardly walk, and some cannot walk due to the weight, imbalance and pain caused by having to drag along an unhealthy oversized liver. The birds' fear behavior when the force feeders appear in the sheds is sufficient reason to oppose such cruelty. I cannot believe you could watch ducks on the water and think it acceptable to subject a duck to this ugly and degrading abuse-for any reason, let alone for a mere sensation of false culture.

Please cancel the seminar. I look forward to an affirmative response from you, hoping that a protest demonstration will not be necessary.

Sincerely,

Karen Davis, PhD
President

Other Info:

10/9/2000: Action Alert - Cancel WTA Foie Gras Seminar United Poultry Concerns. October 9, 2000

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United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org

(UPC Letter to Wine Tasting Association Re: Foie Gras Seminar)