Dear Legislator:
On behalf of JVNA and our members in Massachusetts,
I urge you to support legislation to end the inhumane force-feeding of geese and
ducks for the production of foie gras. The JVNA position is based on Jewish teachings
on compassion to animals and the fact that foie gras production has already been
outlawed by many European countries, including the U.K, the Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
On
August 11, 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court made a landmark decision that banned
the force-feeding of geese and ducks, effective in 2005, for the production of
foie gras, as a violation of Israel's animal cruelty laws. This ruling conforms
to the position of major Ashkenazic and Sephardic rabbinical authorities in Israel,
including Rabbis Zvi Pesach Frank and Eliezer Waldman of the previous generation,
and Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Shear Yashuv Cohen, among today's chief rabbis. As
the judges indicated, to produce this pate "delicacy," birds are force
fed enormous amounts of grain through a pressurized pipe shoved down their throats,
leading to degenerative diseases of the liver.
Since so many countries
have already banned the production of foie gras, it is time that the U.S. follows
suit. This would be consistent with Judaism's teachings on tsa'ar ba'alei chayim,
the Torah mandate to avoid causing pain to animals, and with teachings about compassion
in Judaism and other religions.
Rabbi David Rosen, Orthodox rabbi and former
Chief Rabbi of Ireland, stated: "It should be obvious that pate de foie gras
is produced in a manner that is in complete contravention of the Torah's prohibition
of causing tsa'ar ba'alei chayim - pain to animals. Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the
Noda Bi-Yehuda, clarifies that causing any cruelty to an animal while alive is
a desecration of this prohibition and that if food can be obtained in a manner
that does not involve additional pain and one chooses to obtain such through causing
pain to an animal, one desecrates a Torah prohibition. Pate de foie gras is obtained
through the willful desecration of a Torah prohibition and any truly God-revering
Jew will not partake of such a product, which is an offense against the Creator
and His Torah."
Whether you are Jewish or not, please support legislation
opposing foie gras. Thank you.
