The Washington Post reported that the tube “is pushed 5 inches down their throats, and more food than they want is gunned into their stomachs. If the mushy corn sticks … a stick is sometimes used to force it down.”
Gavage feeding is a practice that has been used since 2500 BCE, depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings, and has continued to become key in foie gras production. It consists of a tube stuck down the duck's throat and food is pumped down it. Factories claim that the feeding is quick, but that only means that the food is pushed down there faster. This grotesque method causes the fowl to enlarge up to 10 TIMES THEIR SIZE!! Evidently, that cannot be healthy. PETA's websites states..
"A worker told one of PETA’s investigators that he could feel tumor-like lumps, caused by force-feeding, in some ducks’ throats. One duck had a maggot-covered neck wound that was so severe that water spilled out of it when he drank. Workers routinely carried ducks by their necks, causing them to choke and defecate in distress."
This causes the mortality rate of domestic ducks that are force fed to rise about 20 TIMES higher than those who are raised humanely.
Please, sign this petition to end the suffering of the innocent, confined ducks!
