How does the public image of Amazon.com’s humane foie gras supplier compare to the private reality? If Amazon.com lied, can any “humane” claims be trusted?
Would a worldwide, well-known supplier like Amazon knowingly sell a product of animal cruelty? Are the animals we eat really treated as well as the industry portrays? Find out in the video above. Take 4 minutes to go behind the scenes at Hudson Valley, a foie gras supplier to Amazon.com. If Amazon can lie, can “humane” claims be trusted?
Watch the video above to see the comparison of Amazon.com’s supplier Hudson Valley’s public image and private reality. The undercover investigation used for comparison footage was released in July 2011 by Mercy for Animals. Hudson Valley’s promotional video was released 5 months later. The details below are not included in the video and will be explored further in future works.
Foie gras, French for “fat liver,” is presented as a gourmet delicacy. But for the ducks in the foie gras industry who are force-fed via metal tubes jammed down their throats, the process is anything but delicate.
This brutal force-feeding, known as gavage, is so barbaric that it’s been outlawed in many countries including Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K. Additionally, foie gras imports & sales are banned in India.[1] Retailers like Target, Safeway, Costco, Giant Eagle and Wolfgang Puck have also banned foie gras.[2][3]
In late 2004, then governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the sale of foie gras in California.[4][5] The ban took effect eight years later in July 2012,[6][7] but was overturned only 2.5 years later on January 7th, 2015.[8][9] Duck-farming organizations sued over the ban[10] and even when in place, it was not respected restaurants.[11]
Experts across disciplines and dietary inclinations agree that foie gras is an unusually cruel animal product.[12][13] Force-feeding’s intent is to produce a fatty liver. This is literally inducing a disease state in the body, leading to obesity, difficulty breathing, and hepatic lipidosis (the medical term for the desired fatty liver).[14][15]
Between April and May of 2013, a Mercy for Animals undercover investigator obtained footage of abuse at a Hudson Valley farm, a supplier to Amazon.com and the largest foie gras producer in the United States.[16] In the ensuing press release on June 11th, 2013, MFA stated that, “In the past, Amazon has stopped selling other products, including whale meat, shark fin soup, and animal fighting videos, due to their cruel production practices.”[17]
As of this post, Amazon still markets Hudson Valley Foie Gras—strangely enough under the retailer “Hudson Valley Lighting.”
Get informed and see what you support when you consume the bodies of animals and the things that come out of them.
Please share this video and post to spread the truth. You can use this created “meme” or use the share links below. Here are also some prepared tweets: Expectation Vs Reality | Don’t Believe The Foie Gras Fraud | Amazon Sells Cruelty Banned Around The World
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— Emily Moran Barwick
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This is so upsetting. I will have to write to Amazon too.
Do people not know what they are eating. It should be a law they have to watch the video first before they eat.
I understand how upsetting this is, but it is no more cruel than what goes on in other aspects of the flesh, animal milk and egg industry. Fore example, it is as cruel to separte a mother cow from her calf, as we have seen in your video the Last embrace. It is just as cruel to grind chicks up alive,etc. All of nonhuman animal agriculture is unusually cruel.
We would have to boycott every major market and restaurant. Including those that vegans flock to for their “vegan option.”( arent the cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, , served in these restaurants just as worthy of compassion?) Are some animals therefore more “equal than others?”
Also Mercy for Animals is an animal WELFARE group They were one of the animal welfare groups that signed the Animal Advocacy Organizations Endorsing Whole Foods’ “Animal Compassionate” Standards
Oh I totally agree Nancy! NO form of exploitation is better than another. And I do know that about MFA and fiercely disagree with welfare. However, I am grateful for their undercover exposes, though I do not agree with their ultimate conclusions, which seem to consistently be to push for better conditions. I have spoken out very often and in many videos that welfare is NOT the answer. In the first Expectation Vs Reality I used undercover footage from HSUS, which has its own issues as well. The experience of these animals that was captured, however, is no less valid. But I do share and appreciate your concerns.