Animal advocate and blogger Annie Hartnett has started a petition against foie gras donuts being sold at a New York restaurant.
Do or Dine in Brooklyn announced that they would sell foie gras donuts,
and if you know anything about foie gras, it will come as no surprise that the response from animal-lovers has not been positive!
Hartnett, whose writing you can find on Change.org, explained why foie gras is cruelty on a plate: “Foie gras, which literally translates to “fatty liver,” is produced by force-feeding waterfowl with pounds of grain and fat. This force-feeding process is known as “gavage,” and it involves thrusting a metal feeding tube down the bird’s throat several times a day. The gavage process sometimes results in holes in a bird’s sensitive neck, and the bird’s engorged liver often becomes diseased. The birds are kept in filthy, crammed conditions while they wait to be force-fed.”
She also believes it is likely the restaurant gets its supply from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, the largest foie gras manufacturer in the United States and the location of undercover investigations by several organizations including PETA and Compassion Over Killing.
In response, Hartnett has created a petition on Change.org asking Do or Dine to stop selling the donuts. There are currently 1,037 signatures. So far, chef Justin Warner seems unmoved by the animal advocates’ requests. He told The Gothamist: “People love this dish. They go crazy for it. But I’m lucky if I serve 30 doughnuts a week—we’re not exactly cranking them out over here. People all over the world are signing this petition, condemning us, telling us we’re monsters, but the one percent of people who are actually coming here and eating them are pretty jazzed.” The restaurant is selling the donuts for $11 a piece.