Factory Farming: Geese Factory Farming Poultry
Our treatment of animals will someday be considered barbarous. There cannot be perfect civilisation until man realises that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own.
Dr David Starr Jordan
In the wild geese have a life expectancy of about twenty five years.
Geese are social animals and have strong affections for others of their flock
Geese are monogamous and will remain with the same mate for life, only choosing another if their partner dies. Some geese after losing their partner may thereafter remain single.
Although Geese do not suffer the abuse of factory farming here in the UK in quite the way that other poultry do, they are nonetheless not free from exploitation and abuse.
In addition to their meat geese are also exploited for Foie gras and for their feathers and down, which may be plucked from them whilst they are still alive!
Foie Gras coined Torture in a tin has already been mentioned in the section concerning ducks:
Factory Farming :Ducks. Torture in a tin is an apt phrase often used to symbolize the cruelty that goes into producing Foie gras. Whilst the production of Foie gras is more prevalent amongst ducks, geese are also subjected to this hideous abuse in significant numbers.
Consider that if you eat foie gras you are eating diseased liver. That's right diseased liver.
Although all meat is unnecessary for a healthy diet, in particular foie gras is not only unnecessary but an expensive luxury which comes at a high price not only for the over privileged humans who indulge in its consumption, but also for the poor unfortunate geese and ducks who are tortured with forced feeding three times each day for 17 days, after which time they are slaughtered at about three months of age. Their entire short lives are filled with nothing but suffering. Awaiting the tortuous process of forced feeding they are confined in tiny cages with no room to move, like so many components on a conveyor belt waiting for the next stage of processing they spend their lives anticipating the next horrific assault. Two to three times each day they face this painful and obviously distressing procedure, day in and day out for the duration of their prematurely shortened lives. In the name of fine dinning in many parts of the world geese and ducks are reared in their millions in intensive factory farms. In France 30 million ducks and 700,00 geese, are breed to produce foie Gras and to a lesser extent Hungary and other countries including Canada.
Foie gras is produced by the cruel practice of force feeding in order to increase both the size of the goose’s liver and its fat content. These abused creatures are fed corn boiled fat which produces huge amounts of fatty deposits on the liver, this causes a disease of the liver called hepatic steatosis.
The painfully diseased liver is now enlarged by this process as much as six to ten times its normal size. Eventually this disease would result in the animals death however before this happens the hapless birds are slaughtered in a none to humane method.
Sometimes the tormented bird’s organs rupture. Force feeding literally means what it says; food is forced, or rather pumped down the goose's throat as his mouth is held open while a metal pipe is forced down and vast amounts of food poured into his stomach. The equivalent of an 175 pound person eating 44 ponds of pasta per day, (see extract from a Farm Animal Sanctuary fact sheet In the section on ducks.) Sometimes the process is automatic by use of a pneumatic pump. Often the goose sustains a ruptured throat or oesophagus. In addition to impaired liver function and damage, the abdomen swells making it difficult to walk, even if the poor creature escapes having his oesophagus ruptured it is nonetheless painfully scarred.
Can you imagine the outcry if this was done to a cat or a dog! Yet in many parts of the world this kind of cruelty is legal and goes unchallenged. This is one of the most appalling kinds of animal cruelty you can imagine which has been banned in some parts of the world including the UK, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Switzerland and some states of the USA. Keep in mind though that here in the UK fair trade regulations allow the importation each year of tonnes of foie gras, an elegant name of French origin of course for a hideous and expensive delicacy, therefore the UK continues to play a huge role in the continuance of this cruelty.
I rather think if this process was more widely known more objection would be raised by the public in general, again its a matter of people not knowing how the food that they eat is produced. Only a very callous or self serving person interested in profit from an expensive commodity or the over privileged consumer concerned only in satisfying an apatite for a food that is considered a delicacy but which in reality is nothing more than diseased liver, would eat foie gras once its origin is known.
Our treatment of animals will someday be considered barbarous. There cannot be perfect civilisation until man realises that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own.
Dr David Starr Jordan
In the wild geese have a life expectancy of about twenty five years.
Geese are social animals and have strong affections for others of their flock
Geese are monogamous and will remain with the same mate for life, only choosing another if their partner dies. Some geese after losing their partner may thereafter remain single.
Although Geese do not suffer the abuse of factory farming here in the UK in quite the way that other poultry do, they are nonetheless not free from exploitation and abuse.
In addition to their meat geese are also exploited for Foie gras and for their feathers and down, which may be plucked from them whilst they are still alive!
Foie Gras coined Torture in a tin has already been mentioned in the section concerning ducks:
Factory Farming :Ducks. Torture in a tin is an apt phrase often used to symbolize the cruelty that goes into producing Foie gras. Whilst the production of Foie gras is more prevalent amongst ducks, geese are also subjected to this hideous abuse in significant numbers.
Consider that if you eat foie gras you are eating diseased liver. That's right diseased liver.
Although all meat is unnecessary for a healthy diet, in particular foie gras is not only unnecessary but an expensive luxury which comes at a high price not only for the over privileged humans who indulge in its consumption, but also for the poor unfortunate geese and ducks who are tortured with forced feeding three times each day for 17 days, after which time they are slaughtered at about three months of age. Their entire short lives are filled with nothing but suffering. Awaiting the tortuous process of forced feeding they are confined in tiny cages with no room to move, like so many components on a conveyor belt waiting for the next stage of processing they spend their lives anticipating the next horrific assault. Two to three times each day they face this painful and obviously distressing procedure, day in and day out for the duration of their prematurely shortened lives. In the name of fine dinning in many parts of the world geese and ducks are reared in their millions in intensive factory farms. In France 30 million ducks and 700,00 geese, are breed to produce foie Gras and to a lesser extent Hungary and other countries including Canada.
Foie gras is produced by the cruel practice of force feeding in order to increase both the size of the goose’s liver and its fat content. These abused creatures are fed corn boiled fat which produces huge amounts of fatty deposits on the liver, this causes a disease of the liver called hepatic steatosis.
The painfully diseased liver is now enlarged by this process as much as six to ten times its normal size. Eventually this disease would result in the animals death however before this happens the hapless birds are slaughtered in a none to humane method.
Sometimes the tormented bird’s organs rupture. Force feeding literally means what it says; food is forced, or rather pumped down the goose's throat as his mouth is held open while a metal pipe is forced down and vast amounts of food poured into his stomach. The equivalent of an 175 pound person eating 44 ponds of pasta per day, (see extract from a Farm Animal Sanctuary fact sheet In the section on ducks.) Sometimes the process is automatic by use of a pneumatic pump. Often the goose sustains a ruptured throat or oesophagus. In addition to impaired liver function and damage, the abdomen swells making it difficult to walk, even if the poor creature escapes having his oesophagus ruptured it is nonetheless painfully scarred.
Can you imagine the outcry if this was done to a cat or a dog! Yet in many parts of the world this kind of cruelty is legal and goes unchallenged. This is one of the most appalling kinds of animal cruelty you can imagine which has been banned in some parts of the world including the UK, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Switzerland and some states of the USA. Keep in mind though that here in the UK fair trade regulations allow the importation each year of tonnes of foie gras, an elegant name of French origin of course for a hideous and expensive delicacy, therefore the UK continues to play a huge role in the continuance of this cruelty.
I rather think if this process was more widely known more objection would be raised by the public in general, again its a matter of people not knowing how the food that they eat is produced. Only a very callous or self serving person interested in profit from an expensive commodity or the over privileged consumer concerned only in satisfying an apatite for a food that is considered a delicacy but which in reality is nothing more than diseased liver, would eat foie gras once its origin is known.
Kate Winslet Exposes Foie Gras Cruelty
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/foie-gras.aspx
After a month of this hell the geese are slaughtered inhumanely by being hug upside down and their throats cut, often while blood drips on live birds below. Its is difficult to imagine that people who are in many ways just like you or I could be so callous to such horrendous suffering of these sentient creatures. Make no mistake these animals feel pain and are aware of what is happening to them.
It is only the male goose or duck who is subjected to this torture, tiny new born females are tossed alive into electric mincers as they are not able to put on the weight as quickly as their brothers, in other words they are not as profitable. That is after all what it is all about of course, money; this is a meal for the over privileged, an expensive so called delicacy.
Birds routinely regain consciousness before they lose brain responsiveness if they do not have a cardiac arrest when they are stunned.
For more detailed information and action you can take
http://www.viva.org.uk/resources/campaign-materials/fact-sheets/torture-tin-viva-foie-gras-fact-sheet
Really how can any nation consider itself civilised while condoning such obvious abuse to any animal. I hope that in the future there will come a time when the way we treat farm animals will be looked on with utter revulsion and horror, much as we do the dreadfulness of past carnage that humans have committed against each other over many centuries, including atrocities of world war two. If such opinions prevail I would imagine that future generations will be particularly revolted by the horror of foie gras production.
In addition to the shocking treatment they endure to produce foie gras, both ducks and geese may well be subject to another hideously painful from of abuse:
Live feather and down plucking!
Although feathers are plucked from slaughtered birds it may surprise you to know that many birds have their feathers plucked, or more accurately ripped from them, whilst they are alive, and this happens three or more times each year!
This cruelty is meted out to millions of birds every year in China, which is the worlds largest producer of down and feathers, and several European counties, including Poland and Hungary. Down and feathers are exported throughout Europe to produce duvets, pillows and to provide an insulating layer in jackets. In Hungary 50 percent of all feathers come from live plucking in huge factory farms where as many as 20, 000 geese are confined crammed into small areas. These unfortunate creatures have their feathers ripped from them at least two to three times each year, after which they may also be subjected to the horror of foie gras production before being finally slaughtered. Sometimes live birds are hung upside down by their feet whilst their feathers are plucked from them.
Collecting down also takes place in the same manner.
Live plucking of down
Although strictly speaking eiderdown comes from the eider duck, down from both geese and other breeds of duck is also used. Down consists of the soft feathers which lie underneath the outer covering of water proof feathers, it is the down feathers that keep the bird warm even in cold water, providing insulation. It is highly sought after for its insulating properties Birds are breed specially for this purpose and from the age of about 10 weeks until about fours years old, as with feathers, down is plucked three or four times each year from each bird. Now this hurts, it is extremely painful and obviously distressful, imagine having your hairs pulled out one by one. These birds have a brain and a nervous system, of course it is painful. It is known by both scientists and veterinarians that this is a cruel practice.
One misconception which may lead people to think that feather plucking is not painful arises from the fact that ducks and geese moult and that the female plucks feathers and down from her body to line her nest. However the mother duck in the process of doing so takes only a few feathers and down, she does not rip out all her feathers and her down as is the case when birds are forcefully plucked. Moulting of course is a painless and natural occurrence for many birds and mammals and feathers or down falling out in this way is not painful, not even noticed anymore than you notice when your hair falls out as it does from time to time.
Plucking geese causes them considerable pain and distress. One study of chickens’ heart rates and behaviors determined that “feather removal is likely to be painful to the bird(s),” and another study found that the blood glucose level of some geese nearly doubled (a symptom of severe stress) during plucking.
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/animals-used-clothing-factsheets/silk-birds-insects-exploited-fabric/
I think for most sensible people such confirmation is not requried, its common sense, of course its painful. After such a trauma birds have been observed to be in agony, trembling shaking from pain and shock huddling together or leaning against a support, it takes them many days to recover.
Although eider ducks are protected species they do not escape unscathed. Each year farmers in Iceland gather more than 6,500 pounds of down feather, taken from the nests of eider ducks. The mother duck plucks these from her chest to line her nest in order to insulate her eggs from the cold, removing them causes the chicks to die.
Although geese are not massed produced for their meat as are other poultry such as Chickens and to a lesser degree turkeys, geese are nonetheless eaten by many, usually those who are more affluent. Goose is often cooked mostly at Christmas as a change from turkey. Like other birds bred for slaughter their end is often anything but the humane sanitised painless process that many people imagine, not that there is of course anything humane about ending the life of a sentient being merely to satisfy a certain culinary preference; there is nothing humane about death, there never was and never will be no matter how a creature's death is brought about. All animals wish to live.
Often they not only suffer from the loss of their existence but may sufferer terribly in the process. According to VIVA a staggering 62 million birds each year regain consciousness before they slowly die from loss of blood. Even more shocking 8.2 million are still alive when they arrive at the scolding tank where they are immersed in scolding water to make for an easy removal of their feathers.
Consider
Both ducks and geese who are kept to produce foie gras or for live feather and down plucking, in addition suffer the same abuse and neglect suffered by all farm animals, kept in cages with no room to move. In dark windowless sheds they are unable to feel the warmth or light of the of the sun or the cool of the breeze or even the cold of a frozen lake from which the down that we steel was meant to insulate them. Nor can they swim in a pond or river or fly, they can't even stretch their wings let alone fly! They are unable to do anything that geese or ducks do in the wild. They cannot socially interact, keep themselves clean or care for their young. In short life is denied them whist they like all farm animals are subjected to mutilations such as having their beaks cut off.
There are many actions you can take to stop the abuse of these animals, the most obvious of which is to not eat foie gras. And please do not make the mistake of thinking an item ladled duck's livers on a menu is the same as pigs or sheep's liver, not that of course it is any more humane to eat any type of liver or anything else from another animal. To prevent the live plucking of ducks and geese you should avoid buying duvets and pillows and cloths stuffed or lined with duck or goose feather or down. There are so many excellent synthetic alternatives that the use of feathers and down is not now necessary either for bedding or clothing. Recently I bought a very warm specially insulted coat entirely synthetic and it is as warm as any lined with down. You do not need either their feathers or down taken from them with such barbaric cruelty.
Below you will find links too websites with more information and actions you can take to bring about the cessation of foie gras production and live feather plucking.
Also on this website related link Sentient Geese
Related links:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/duck.html
http://www.stopforcefeeding.com/
Important please note:
I am not an animal expert of any kind just your average person who loves animals, all animals, and feels deeply about the plight of many of our fellow creatures. Neither am I a writer, or any other expert. Therefore please keep in mind that the information included in this website has been researched to the best of my ability and any misinformation is quite by accident but of course possible.
Copyright, accreditations and other matters, please read
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/foie-gras.aspx
After a month of this hell the geese are slaughtered inhumanely by being hug upside down and their throats cut, often while blood drips on live birds below. Its is difficult to imagine that people who are in many ways just like you or I could be so callous to such horrendous suffering of these sentient creatures. Make no mistake these animals feel pain and are aware of what is happening to them.
It is only the male goose or duck who is subjected to this torture, tiny new born females are tossed alive into electric mincers as they are not able to put on the weight as quickly as their brothers, in other words they are not as profitable. That is after all what it is all about of course, money; this is a meal for the over privileged, an expensive so called delicacy.
Birds routinely regain consciousness before they lose brain responsiveness if they do not have a cardiac arrest when they are stunned.
For more detailed information and action you can take
http://www.viva.org.uk/resources/campaign-materials/fact-sheets/torture-tin-viva-foie-gras-fact-sheet
Really how can any nation consider itself civilised while condoning such obvious abuse to any animal. I hope that in the future there will come a time when the way we treat farm animals will be looked on with utter revulsion and horror, much as we do the dreadfulness of past carnage that humans have committed against each other over many centuries, including atrocities of world war two. If such opinions prevail I would imagine that future generations will be particularly revolted by the horror of foie gras production.
In addition to the shocking treatment they endure to produce foie gras, both ducks and geese may well be subject to another hideously painful from of abuse:
Live feather and down plucking!
Although feathers are plucked from slaughtered birds it may surprise you to know that many birds have their feathers plucked, or more accurately ripped from them, whilst they are alive, and this happens three or more times each year!
This cruelty is meted out to millions of birds every year in China, which is the worlds largest producer of down and feathers, and several European counties, including Poland and Hungary. Down and feathers are exported throughout Europe to produce duvets, pillows and to provide an insulating layer in jackets. In Hungary 50 percent of all feathers come from live plucking in huge factory farms where as many as 20, 000 geese are confined crammed into small areas. These unfortunate creatures have their feathers ripped from them at least two to three times each year, after which they may also be subjected to the horror of foie gras production before being finally slaughtered. Sometimes live birds are hung upside down by their feet whilst their feathers are plucked from them.
Collecting down also takes place in the same manner.
Live plucking of down
Although strictly speaking eiderdown comes from the eider duck, down from both geese and other breeds of duck is also used. Down consists of the soft feathers which lie underneath the outer covering of water proof feathers, it is the down feathers that keep the bird warm even in cold water, providing insulation. It is highly sought after for its insulating properties Birds are breed specially for this purpose and from the age of about 10 weeks until about fours years old, as with feathers, down is plucked three or four times each year from each bird. Now this hurts, it is extremely painful and obviously distressful, imagine having your hairs pulled out one by one. These birds have a brain and a nervous system, of course it is painful. It is known by both scientists and veterinarians that this is a cruel practice.
One misconception which may lead people to think that feather plucking is not painful arises from the fact that ducks and geese moult and that the female plucks feathers and down from her body to line her nest. However the mother duck in the process of doing so takes only a few feathers and down, she does not rip out all her feathers and her down as is the case when birds are forcefully plucked. Moulting of course is a painless and natural occurrence for many birds and mammals and feathers or down falling out in this way is not painful, not even noticed anymore than you notice when your hair falls out as it does from time to time.
Plucking geese causes them considerable pain and distress. One study of chickens’ heart rates and behaviors determined that “feather removal is likely to be painful to the bird(s),” and another study found that the blood glucose level of some geese nearly doubled (a symptom of severe stress) during plucking.
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/animals-used-clothing-factsheets/silk-birds-insects-exploited-fabric/
I think for most sensible people such confirmation is not requried, its common sense, of course its painful. After such a trauma birds have been observed to be in agony, trembling shaking from pain and shock huddling together or leaning against a support, it takes them many days to recover.
Although eider ducks are protected species they do not escape unscathed. Each year farmers in Iceland gather more than 6,500 pounds of down feather, taken from the nests of eider ducks. The mother duck plucks these from her chest to line her nest in order to insulate her eggs from the cold, removing them causes the chicks to die.
Although geese are not massed produced for their meat as are other poultry such as Chickens and to a lesser degree turkeys, geese are nonetheless eaten by many, usually those who are more affluent. Goose is often cooked mostly at Christmas as a change from turkey. Like other birds bred for slaughter their end is often anything but the humane sanitised painless process that many people imagine, not that there is of course anything humane about ending the life of a sentient being merely to satisfy a certain culinary preference; there is nothing humane about death, there never was and never will be no matter how a creature's death is brought about. All animals wish to live.
Often they not only suffer from the loss of their existence but may sufferer terribly in the process. According to VIVA a staggering 62 million birds each year regain consciousness before they slowly die from loss of blood. Even more shocking 8.2 million are still alive when they arrive at the scolding tank where they are immersed in scolding water to make for an easy removal of their feathers.
Consider
Both ducks and geese who are kept to produce foie gras or for live feather and down plucking, in addition suffer the same abuse and neglect suffered by all farm animals, kept in cages with no room to move. In dark windowless sheds they are unable to feel the warmth or light of the of the sun or the cool of the breeze or even the cold of a frozen lake from which the down that we steel was meant to insulate them. Nor can they swim in a pond or river or fly, they can't even stretch their wings let alone fly! They are unable to do anything that geese or ducks do in the wild. They cannot socially interact, keep themselves clean or care for their young. In short life is denied them whist they like all farm animals are subjected to mutilations such as having their beaks cut off.
There are many actions you can take to stop the abuse of these animals, the most obvious of which is to not eat foie gras. And please do not make the mistake of thinking an item ladled duck's livers on a menu is the same as pigs or sheep's liver, not that of course it is any more humane to eat any type of liver or anything else from another animal. To prevent the live plucking of ducks and geese you should avoid buying duvets and pillows and cloths stuffed or lined with duck or goose feather or down. There are so many excellent synthetic alternatives that the use of feathers and down is not now necessary either for bedding or clothing. Recently I bought a very warm specially insulted coat entirely synthetic and it is as warm as any lined with down. You do not need either their feathers or down taken from them with such barbaric cruelty.
Below you will find links too websites with more information and actions you can take to bring about the cessation of foie gras production and live feather plucking.
Also on this website related link Sentient Geese
Related links:
http://www.all-creatures.org/anex/duck.html
http://www.stopforcefeeding.com/
Important please note:
I am not an animal expert of any kind just your average person who loves animals, all animals, and feels deeply about the plight of many of our fellow creatures. Neither am I a writer, or any other expert. Therefore please keep in mind that the information included in this website has been researched to the best of my ability and any misinformation is quite by accident but of course possible.
Copyright, accreditations and other matters, please read