Ban on force-fed bird products including foie gras

Force-Feeding is Cruel and Unnecessary

Foie gras (French for “fatty liver”) is an expensive dish produced by force-feeding ducks and geese until their livers become diseased. Multiple times a day for weeks, long tubes are forced down birds’ throats to pump in slurries of corn and oil. This process is designed to induce fatty liver disease, causing birds’ livers to swell to ten times their normal size.

Producers say force-feeding causes only brief discomfort, but evidence shows the birds suffer continuously, both physically and psychologically. Recent footage from a top supplier of foie gras to Denver restaurants shows birds in visible distress during the force-feeding process: avoiding eye contact, climbing over each other, and pressing into the corners of their pens. Birds routinely come away from feedings with broken beaks and throat injuries, and as the liver disease progresses, many become unable to walk or stand.

Ducks and geese must submerge their heads in order to clean their eyes and nostrils, but force-fed birds are denied access to water for bathing, leading to painful infections. But regardless of conditions, force-feeding an animal to induce liver disease is cruel and happens solely to produce a luxury status symbol that no one needs and most Denverites never consume.

Initiated Ordinance 311, if approved, would:

stop restaurants and other food establishments in Denver from selling foie gras produced on farms that force-feed birds;

prevent the force-feeding of birds within city limits, with an exemption allowing licensed veterinarians to feed sick birds by tube when medically necessary; and

not restrict the personal consumption or possession of force-fed products, or the sale of foie gras produced without force-feeding.

Why Vote Yes on Initiated Ordinance 311

Local veterinarians, restaurants, and rescues agree that force-feeding birds until their organs fail is

unnecessary cruelty. Foie gras is an expensive luxury item, not a staple food that families depend on, and it is sold as a single, seasonal dish rather than a primary source of revenue for any business.

A Colorado State University poll found that 85% of Colorado voters support ending the sale of foie gras from farms where force-feeding is used.

This cruelty is so extreme that it’s illegal in more than twenty countries, including most of the European Union, along with New York City, Pittsburgh, Portland, and California.

There's nothing natural about foie gras. Force-fed birds’ livers swell to ten times their normal size, while wild birds’ livers only swell to 1.5 times prior to migration.

Denver has taken similar action before. When our city prohibited the retail sale of puppies and kittens, the mills supplying these animals were out-of-state. While the factory farms that force-feed birds are not in Denver, we have a responsibility to cut off demand for their products here.

Enforcement is likely to cost the city almost nothing. Restaurants already undergo routine licensing inspections to ensure compliance with existing laws.

This initiative was a volunteer-led effort placed on the ballot without any paid circulators.