Ducks Freed from Foie Gras Farm

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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-foiegras18sep18,1,7982772.story

 

Activists Take Ducks From Foie Gras Shed

Birds were destined to be killed to provide a culinary delicacy. Business owner

is outraged.

 

FARMINGTON, Calif. - With only the dim light of a half-moon to guide them, four

self-proclaimed " duck freedom fighters " made their way early Wednesday across an

abandoned field, around dilapidated, foul-smelling chicken pens, and over a

narrow passage through a large manure-filled pond.

 

After a difficult 1 1/2-mile hike, Bryan Pease, Kath Rodgers, Carla Brauer and a

man who refused to identify himself reached the Sonoma Foie Gras duck shed.

Soon, four Peking-Muscovy ducks were free.

 

The group had been eyeing the site for weeks in preparation for this mission,

which they hoped would save the lives of a few ducks that were scheduled to be

killed to produce foie gras, an expensive culinary delicacy often sold at

high-end restaurants.

 

The participants said the cause is important enough to justify their actions.

But Sonoma Foie Gras owner Guillermo Gonzalez, when reached later about the

incident, said he was outraged by people trespassing on his property and taking

his animals. Although he had not yet noticed the four ducks missing, Gonzalez

said charges should be brought if the birds were stolen.

 

" Unfortunately, some activists hold animals in higher esteem than they do

humans, " said Gonzalez. " Our animals are treated humanely, and anybody who

enters our farm can see that. "

 

To the four activists, animal cruelty is intrinsic to the production of foie

gras, which requires ducks to be pneumatically force-fed large amounts of a

corn-based meal in order to enlarge their livers. The controversial feeding

practice takes place twice a day over the four-week period before a duck is

slaughtered.

 

The group had conducted such operations previously as part of what it calls " the

underground railroad for ducks. " But this one was a bit more complicated.

 

The night before, a Bay Area television station had aired portions of a video

the four, members of an ad-hoc animal rights group that calls itself the Animal

Protection and Rescue League, had shot earlier this year showing conditions at

the farm.

 

" This may not be as easy tonight, " said Pease, a veteran of several duck

releases, as he crossed through a field in the still night. " After the video,

there may be someone there waiting for us. "

 

The video had been released by Gourmet Cruelty, an animal rights group that has

launched efforts to ban foie gras production in California. Its graphic footage

detailed the living conditions of ducks at Sonoma Foie Gras, one of only two

producers of the delicacy in the U.S. and the only one in California.

 

Sonoma Foie Gras leases sheds and some land here, near Stockton.

 

Pease, like the others, was wearing disinfected clothes, rubber boots, and

surgical masks and gloves in order to prevent the spread of Exotic Newcastle

Disease, which has recently killed millions of poultry animals in California.

 

When he realized that his bolt cutters would not do the job on new locks that

had been installed at the shed, he quietly tiptoed around the building, just a

few yards from the homes of sleeping Sonoma Foie Gras employees, and found an

alternative entry: an unsophisticated air-conditioning system made of porous,

accordion-like plastic under a constant shower of water.

 

" We're not about property destruction, " Pease whispered to his companions as he

labored to remove the long plastic sheet without causing damage. " We're going to

leave this thing just as we found it. "

 

After the plastic was removed, Rodgers, the smallest of the four, squeezed her

way into the shed, and let out a mild yelp as her wet skin made contact with

electrified chicken wire used to keep rats out of the building. Making her way

through the dark, she groped to find a side door to open for her companions to

enter.

 

For 45 minutes, the four surveyed the inside of the large shed, shooting video

of the conditions and inspecting each of the 1,500 or so ducks in the building.

Then the group chose the four ducks they deemed " in most need, " carefully placed

them in two large plastic bins they had brought, and made their way back to the

Ford van they had rented for the trip.

 

" These are too heavy, " Rodgers said of the 40-pound bins - each carrying two

ducks - she and a companion carried. As the ducks bumped against the green

plastic containers in en effort to get out, Rodgers tried to console them by

whispering to them: " We're almost there, little ones. "

 

Sonoma Foie Gras has been in business for nearly 20 years, but it has come under

attack recently from animal-rights activists.

 

In late July, activists vandalized two homes, including one owned by well-known

San Francisco chef Laurent Manrique, and caused a flood in a historic

19th-century adobe building in Sonoma.

 

Manrique is a partner with Sonoma Foie Gras owner Gonzalez in a separate

business venture: a bistro that is scheduled to open across from the downtown

plaza in Sonoma this fall.

 

If " ducks were stolen and the thieves are identified, " Gonzalez said, he would

seek charges against the perpetrators.

 

" It's a matter of principle, " he said. " It's not about four ducks. It's that

they are abusing my rights as both a businessman and as a human being. "

 

Gonzalez said there had been several early morning break-ins into his farm in

recent months. He acknowledged that " parts of the video " shown on the local

television report were of his property. But he said that he cannot confirm that

" the more gruesome images " were filmed on his farm because they were close-ups.

 

Pease says trespassing and taking ducks is " not a violation of the law. " During

the two-hour drive to a large home in the foothills area where the ducks were to

be dropped off for rehabilitation, he said, " We are upholding California's

anti-animal cruelty law We're going in with the purpose of providing

veterinarian care to the animals that need it. "

 

Along the drive, the group stopped often to check on the ducks' conditions. The

largest of the four, with green dye along its throat that marked its imminent

slaughter, was barely mobile.

 

" I'm very afraid about this one, " said a close-to-tears Brauer as she leaned

into the back of the van to pet the duck along the top of its head and back. " I

don't know if he'll make it. "

 

At 5 a.m., the group reached the safe house, a large log-framed home in a valley

ringed by heavily forested hills. Waiting for them was an avian veterinarian.

 

The vet peered into the bins carrying the ducks and ordered that they be whisked

into the house. The vet immediately set to work on the largest and most ill of

the four, pointing to a large amount of regurgitated food - mostly consisting of

large, unbroken hard kernels of corn - near where the duck's beak had rested.

 

" He's just too weak, " said the vet, while scooping up the bird. " It looks like

he couldn't gather the strength to prevent the regurgitation from going back

into his lungs. "

 

The vet passed a stethoscope along the duck's breast to gauge the animal's

breathing. Suddenly, the duck jerked its head straight up, and then let it fall

to the floor. " I'm sorry, " the vet told the anxious onlookers. " He's gone. "

 

While Rodgers sobbed, Pease tried to console her. " At least he died here with

people who were trying to save him and not those butchers, " he said.

 

The remaining three ducks were later taken to a partially covered structure

elsewhere on the property.

 

By Wednesday afternoon, said the home's owner, all three were waddling around

and drinking water.

 

Pease said he believes any future " rescue efforts at Sonoma Foie Gras will be

very difficult. "

 

" We'll keep on trying, " he said, " because there are still many ducks there that

need our help. "