Amazon Dealing with Foie Gras
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Jeffrey Bezos, Chairman, President, and CEO
Amazon.com Inc.
1200 12th Ave. South, Suite 1200 * Seattle, WA 98144-2734
AMAZON U.S. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Amazon.com, Inc. Customer Service
John Clark, Executive Customer Relations
PO Box 81226 * Seattle, WA 98108-1226
AMAZON CANADIAN CUSTOMER SERVICE
AMAZON U.K. CUSTOMER SERVICE
Amazon.co.uk Ltd * Patriot Court * 1-9 The Grove * Slough, SL1 1QP
Dear Mr. Bezos and Amazon.com Customer Service:
Foie gras is derived from the fatty, diseased livers of ducks and geese. If
the birds aren't deliberately gorged to the brink of death, there is no
"delicacy." Despite foie gras bans in over a dozen countries and more than
300 U.S. restaurants, Amazon.com still peddles this byproduct of suffering.
Shockingly, Amazon features foie gras from Elevages Perigord -- Canada's
largest producer and the subject of a 2006-2007 cruelty investigation. In
St. Louis de Gonzague, Quebec, a worker filmed ruthless abuse inside the
hatchery, feeding sheds and slaughterhouse. Photographic evidence has been
delivered to Canadian authorities and prosecution against Elevages Perigord
is pending.
To make foie gras, ducks or geese are attached to a pressurized pump.
Several times daily, liquid feed is shoved 12 inches down their throats via
a metal rod (oral gavage). At Elevages Perigord, feeding sheds house about
1,000 ducks, with seven ducks squeezed into each small cage. According to
the former employee's verified account, "The notion the ducks enjoyed forced feeding was utterly ridiculous. As soon as they received a dose, they'd frantically shake their heads, trying to spit out food and often vomiting... Breathing became very laborious for ducks. During the last few days, most couldn't lift their heads and many died."
At foie gras farms, the pre-slaughter death rate averages 20% higher than
other duck factory farms. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals cites documentation from veterinarians that "the birds' livers become so enlarged, [they]... have literally exploded from these forced feedings. The results of necropsies on dead birds reveal ruptured livers, throat damage, esophageal trauma, and food spilling from the dead animal's throat and out of [his] nostrils."
Some ducks never make it to the feeding sheds. Inside hatcheries, day-old
ducks are sorted by sex. Males are de-beaked and de-toed with ordinary
scissors. Females, whose vein-encased livers generate poor quality meat, are discarded in garbage bags and gassed with carbon dioxide or suffocated.
Elevages Perigord's former worker claims he saw about 1,000 females killed
each week.
He also witnessed the crude slaughter of undersized ducks. He saw fellow
workers bash ducks' heads against concrete posts, step on them and twist
their necks. He observed one duck whose head clung to his neck by a single
thread of tissue. "None of the ducks died immediately," he says. "I'd have
to pick them up, still convulsing, and throw them into garbage bins."
At the slaughterhouse, ducks pass through an electrical bath to render them
unconscious. "I stood directly in front of this bath," the one-time worker
notes, "and the overwhelming majority of birds missed it entirely. The slaughterer would grab the upside down duck by his head and puncture his
jugular... The conscious ducks would flap their wings violently, squirm, and thrash about."
Amazon.com sells foie gras manufactured at this facility. Please stop now! If Amazon wants my business, it needs to cancel the sale of foie gras. Please make the responsible decision to remove all foie gras products from your website.
Sincerely,
