Machipongo, VA - Barring cancellation of the Wine Tasting Association's seminar on duck liver foie gras, United Poultry Concerns, a national animal protection organization, will protest the WTA's promotion of foie gras.

Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, NW, Washington DC
Wednesday October 18th 6:30 - 7:30 PM

United Poultry Concerns, the ASPCA. PETA and other groups and individuals have urged WTA president Mark Phillips to cancel the seminar, explaining that foie gras is produced by force feeding ducks and geese to distend their livers and make the organs mushy, greasy, and diseased.

While Mr. Phillips concedes he knows that the ducks have tubes rammed down their throats in order to produce the pathologic liver, he says he does not consider this cruel, even though he is an "animal lover."

Mr. Phillips told United Poultry Concerns he believes producers' claim that "the birds actually come to the feeder when the person enters the room" to shove the mechanical pump down their throats. In fact, and more sensibly, ducks and geese show fear behavior when the force feeders appear in the sheds. "We're talking about a FORCE feeding procedure, not a choice feeding behavior," says United Poultry Concerns president Karen Davis. "Anyone who has been around ducks and geese knows perfectly well that they do not, and would not, consent to being handled this way unless they were too ill to fight they're doing more than just 'tasting' the wine. If they call off their show we'll call off our ducks. Otherwise, we'll be there, quacking and hissing."

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