Ian J.H. Duncan's testimony

Comments on Foie Gras Production Unit

The following are comments on scenes from a video burned on a CD in mpeg format purporting to be from Elevages Perigord,, a foie gras production unit in Quebec.

Scene 1 shows ducklings being killed by gassing (presumably CO2) in a black plastic bag.  Several dozen ducklings (perhaps as many as 100) are tipped into a black plastic beg from hatching trays.  A nozzle from a CO2 cylinder is inserted into the bag and the bag is inflated with a few blasts from the cylinder.  The neck of the bag is then sealed with tape and the ducklings are left to die.  CO2 is not the most humane gas to use for this purpose but it might almost be acceptable if it was done in a proper manner.  However, the ducklings are piled on top of each other in the bag which is not humane.  Moreover, the CO2 gas will take time to penetrate to ducklings in the centre of this pile.  Death will therefore be slow and not humane.

Scene 2 shows ducklings being suffocated in a black plastic bag.  This is a completely unacceptable way of killing any animals.  It is cruel and inhumane and the ducklings will suffer a horrible death.

Scene 3 shows trash cans filled with what looks like hatchery waste.  This is composed of mainly dead ducklings and broken eggshells.  However, some ducklings are still alive and look as thought they are suffering.  These ducklings have either been misdiagnosed as being dead or attempts to kill them have been unsuccessful.

Scene 4 shows ducks being “herded” through a barn and loaded into crates.  The herding process is extremely rough with ducks being kicked with great force (sufficient force to propel them through the air).  Some ducks are also thrown 4-5 metres through the air.  This will result in the ducks suffering fear and pain and is a cruel and inhumane way to move ducks.  The crating process itself is extremely rough with ducks being crammed into crates.  This will result in injury and pain.  Some ducks are also thrown from the barn to the crates over a distance of 4-5 metres.  This will result in fear, injury and pain and is a cruel and inhumane way to move ducks.

Scene 5 shows ducks being killed by being swung by the legs and thumped against either the floor or a wall.  This is a completely unacceptable way to kill birds.  The fact that the process had to be repeated several times with each bird shows that death was not sudden.  It also means that the birds would suffer terrible injuries before actually being killed.

Scene 6 shows ducks being killed by neck twisting.  In birds, cervical dislocation is considered reasonably humane if it is carried out quickly and efficiently and the dislocation occurs high in the spinal cord, preferably at between the axis and atlas.  This is not what is happening in Scene 6.  A bird is held down and the head rotated until eventually the vertebral column breaks.  This will result in severe pain to the bird and a slow agonizing death.  This is a cruel and inhumane practice. 

Scene 7 showed the force feeding of ducks.  In this process, a metal pipe is inserted into the duck’s oesophagus and a concentrated slurry of food is pumped into the crop.  This process can lead to damage to the oesophagus with resultant pain.  The normal procedure on foie gras units is to repeat this process two or three times a day.  Within a few days, this results in the duck’s liver becoming grossly expanded and pathologically fatty.  The consequence of this is extreme discomfort for the duck.

Scene 8 shows shackling and slaughter of ducks at a slaughter plant.  The major blood vessels in the ducks’ neck are being cut manually.  The question here is “Have the ducks been rendered unconscious prior to their necks being cut?”  This is required by Canadian law unless an exception has been made on religious grounds.  The evidence suggests that the ducks are not unconscious when being cut.  The are not showing the tetany and posture typical of electrically-stunned birds.  The birds are therefore suffering pain during the slaughter process which is cruel and inhumane.

Scene 8 shows the living quarters of the force-fed ducks.  These are extremely small individual cages.  It looks as though the ducks do not even have sufficient space to turn round let alone flap their wings.  The cages are also filthy and very unhygienic.  Ducks kept under such conditions will suffer from extreme frustration.  

In summary, these eight scenes from a foie gras production unit show an enormous amount of suffering in the ducks being farmed.  The suffering includes a very severe fear, frustration, discomfort and pain.  If the same degree of suffering was inflicted on dogs, cats or horses, the perpetrators would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Ian J.H. Duncan
Professor Emeritus
Chair in Animal Welfare
University of Guelph
Guelph
Ontario N1G 2W1

6th June 2007
 

Laurie Siperstein-Cook's testimony

17 June 2007

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a veterinarian who specializes in caring for pet birds, including parrots, chickens and water fowl. I graduated from the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine in 1989.  I have been asked to comment on the video from Farm Sanctuary titled: Foie gras footage for experts”.

The video shows various events in a duck farm that is raising ducks for foie gras. It begins showing the female ducklings being tossed into garbage bags. Some bags are filled with gas, supposedly carbon dioxide. Others are just compressed to remove as much air as possible and then tied closed. The ducklings can be heard peeping inside. Gassing with carbon dioxide is only  considered  to be a humane method for euthanasia when performed correctly (ie the correct concentration and duration of exposure).   Certainly, suffocation by lack of air is a cruel and slow death.  The fact that ducklings were later found alive in the garbage bins is evidence that the killings were not performed humanely.

Several views of the garbage bins outside show ducks and ducklings in the bins, in freezing weather. A few to several ducks are alive and moving inside the bins.  These ducks will eventually die from freezing, suffocation, starvation, or from being crushed inside the garbage truck when they are dumped.

Ducks are being shown loaded into crates for shipping. They are grabbed by a wing and forcefully jammed into the crates until the crates are stuffed with ducks. These actions can easily result in broken and dislocated bones, both very painful conditions.

Ducks are being shown ‘herded’ along the floor of a shed. The stragglers at the back are yelled at, shoved hard by booted feet, and occasionally picked up and thrown several feet across the floor.  These actions could obviously result in blunt-force trauma, including bruising and fractured bones.

Birds are shown being killed by hand, with the workers twisting and pulling off their heads. Other times, the worker pick up the ducks by the feet and swing their heads multiple times against a wall until they are dead. The technique of ‘cervical dislocation’ can cause rapid and painless death if done correctly, but these workers seem to show no care in performing this act humanely.

Ducks are seeing being force-fed, or gavaged, in the process of making foie gras. . Foie gras is produced in ducks by force-feeding the birds excessive amounts of a high calorie food. The purpose of this process is to cause their livers to swell to an abnormal size due to storage of fat. The consequences of this process are deleterious to the health and well-being of the birds. Grossly enlarged livers are less able to perform their function of cleansing the bloodstream of waste products from the body. The swollen livers also put pressure on the abdominal airsacs which impairs the bird's ability to breathe. To make matters worse, the ducks in this factory are kept individually is tiny pens barely big enough for one bird. As the birds grow, the sides of the cages prevent the birds from inhaling deeply. Futhermore, if the force feeding were to continue, many if not most of the birds would die from liver disease.

The treatment of the ducks at the several locations at this foie gras plant is very disturbing in its cruelty. The ducks and ducklings are continuously subjected to painful and cruel treatment, whether being killed, transported or even during feeding. The workers demonstrate utter disregard for the birds welfare at every location, far beyond what is considered ‘normal’ farming practices.  

Laurie Siperstein-Cook, MS, DVM

Dr. Michael C. Appleby's testimony

Commentary on video labelled as being from foie gras producer
Elevages Perigord, Quebec, Canada, Dec. 2006 – Feb. 2007

By Dr. Michael C. Appleby

For the record, I carried out scientific research on behaviour, housing and welfare of poultry for 20 years at the Poultry Research Centre, Scotland, and the University of Edinburgh. I am author and editor of several books on the subject (1992 Poultry Production Systems: Behaviour, Management and Welfare; 1997 Animal Welfare; 2004 Poultry Behaviour and Welfare).

The video was clearly taken by someone working on the farm, using a camera apparently attached to his chest and filming as he participates in or watches the work shown. The titles used below are those in the video.

Gassing of baby ducklings
A large crate of young ducklings and some egg waste are tipped into a black plastic sack, sufficient that the majority of ducklings in the sack must be in a dense pile with others on top of them; the top of the sack is gathered together and a pipe from what looks like a fire extinguisher is inserted; the valve on the extinguisher is struck briefly, twice, sending two short blasts of gas into the sack, which inflates; the top of the sack is taped shut and the sack is placed aside, with no further action apparently intended.

    It is not clear to me why ducklings are being killed, but as they are, the farm should have the means to kill them humanely. The egg waste must have included incompletely hatched, live ducklings; the farm should also have the means to dispose of egg waste humanely. Such means are readily available commercially, including properly constructed machinery for gassing (including control of concentrations) and machinery for maceration of small birds and egg waste (which is aesthetically unpleasant but rapid and humane).

The practice shown is grossly inadequate. The extinguisher or whatever is used presumably supplies Carbon Dioxide. While Carbon Dioxide from a cylinder would be no different, use of an extinguisher is unsatisfactory because the valve gives very little control on the amount of gas use. Carbon Dioxide needs a high concentration in air before it induces unconsciousness quickly (and subsequently causes death). This concentration may have been reached for the top layer of ducklings, although no method is available to check this, as it should be. It is impossible that Carbon Dioxide penetrated down into the pile of ducklings sufficiently to achieve the appropriate concentration for the majority. Most ducklings will therefore have died slowly of suffocation. This is an extremely inhumane method of killing.

Suffocation of baby ducklings
A female worker crouches with a black plastic sack on the floor, about one third full. It is clear from the context – including her comments that what she is doing is cruel – that the contents of the sack are ducklings, and one is seen to escape, then to be replaced. She leans firmly on the sack to expel air, and when she has done so as much as possible she ties the top. I have been informed that this method of killing was used about 50% of the time, rather than gassing.

    Compression of the sack, including leaning directly on the birds, will have caused considerable welfare problems including pain. The birds will then have died slowly of suffocation. As already stated, this is an extremely inhumane method of killing.

Ducklings found dying inside trash cans
Trash cans are opened to show that they are nearly full of dead ducklings. In one of a group of about six trash cans, a duckling is struggling weakly, half buried in the top layer of dead birds. It must have been suffering, and will have died without intervention, from a combination of cold and the damage done to it. It may have taken a long time to die. In another section of film, in one of a group of about eight trash cans, a duckling is sitting on top of the dead birds, making isolation distress calls but otherwise apparently healthy. If left there, it will have died slowly of cold. The fact that these two birds were alive suggests the possibility that others were also alive when they were placed in the trash cans, but were not seen either because they were buried or because they died without the cans being inspected.

    Whatever method of killing is used, birds should be checked thoroughly for any survivors before disposal. To leave survivors to die slowly, rather than looking after them or culling them rapidly, is severely inhumane.

Loading ducks from sheds into crates
A group of ducks is herded along a shed to where they are to be loaded into crates. They are seriously abnormal in their behaviour – more-or-less unable to walk, with wings dragging on the ground – and do not move away from the workers as ducks would normally. The workers drive them with shouts and kicks, including some violent kicks that propel ducks through the air. Two ducks are picked up and carried, apparently by one wing (as opposed to recommended, humane ways of carrying birds, properly supported); one is picked up and thrown violently, a considerable distance.

    Birds are then thrown onto a truck and forced violently into crates through inadequate small openings. The crates appear to have small openings in the top, rather than the fully opening tops normally recommended to allow easy loading. In addition, some birds here are loaded through the ends of the crates, which are designed for emptying the crates, which will also have prevented proper distribution of birds through the crate space. When ducks can not readily be pushed into a crate, because of other birds already in there, they are struck vigorously with a fist or the heel of a hand, to force them in and allow the door to be closed. The crates appear to be grossly overfilled, with the maximum number of birds that can be squeezed in, rather than filled to recommended densities that would allow all birds to sit in the crate. It is possible that this impression is misleading and caused by inadequate movement of ducks away from the crate opening, but there is no indication that anyone is counting the number of ducks placed in each crate, or making any other check that appropriate stocking density is not being surpassed.

    The poor movement of the ducks must have been caused by previous treatment, presumably restrictive housing. Even then it would have been possible to herd them gently, given more time. Indeed, it was not necessary to herd them at all: crates could have been taken to them. Instead they were treated violently, in ways that will have caused considerable fear and pain in addition to the suffering they were already undergoing from their physical problems. The loading into crates was done in a way that was more violent and inhumane than I have ever seen before. Again this treatment was completely unnecessary, and was caused by a combination of excessive hurry, inadequate crate openings (or improper use of crate openings) and probably gross overfilling of crates.

Ducks killed by “thumping”
Four ducks are seen being killed. I have been told that these were killed during transfer to feeding cages if ducks were deemed to be either too small or too sickly for force feeding, and that “blunt force trauma” was used more frequently.
a) One is held, apparently by wing-ends and legs, and swung vertically so that its head hits the ground hard, twice. It is placed in a trash can, where it is seen to move for some time; in my view these movements are post-death.
b) One is held by the legs and one wing and swung horizontally so that its head hits the end of a low wall hard, twice. Its body also appears to hit the wall.
c) One is given some treatment, unseen, presumably meant to kill it. It is dropped on the ground but presumably still moving. It is then picked up by the legs and swung horizontally so that its head or neck hits a thin vertical rail (the end of a metal fence) twice, not very hard, and dropped accidentally. It is again picked up by the legs, and swung pendulum-wise so that its head bangs not very hard on a wall, twice. It is then dropped on the ground, with no further action apparently intended, despite the fact that no check has been made that the bird is dead and someone (it sounds like the person wearing the camera) says “It’s still breathing.”
d) One is held by the legs and swung pendulum-wise so that its head bangs hard on a concrete post-base three times.

    In my view (a), (b) and (d) were probably killed fairly quickly and relatively humanely. However, the method used was unsatisfactory in each case because it was done in such a way that the body also struck the object (unavoidably so in (a) where the ground was used), which in other cases, or by other workers, could result in the body absorbing much of the blow. An arrangement such as using the end or top of a wall, where only the head strikes the wall, would be more reliable.

    (c) was indefensibly inhumane. Three methods (including the first, presumed, unseen attempt) were all ineffective at killing the bird, and will have caused gross suffering. Banging the head on a thin rail could conceivably have killed it, but was so unreliable as to be completely unacceptable. Swinging it fairly gently against a wall could not conceivably have killed it. In addition to the fact that the worker’s actions are utterly inappropriate in themselves, they also suggest that he has not received any training in proper ways of killing birds humanely.

Ducks killed by neck twisting
Three ducks are seen being killed. For the first two, the worker places his foot on the neck and then twists the head. The second is partly decapitated. For the third, a worker places his foot on the body to hold it down and then twists the head.

    Killing animals by severing or breaking the neck is not humane, as brain sensation may continue for some time. I believe that it is an acceptable method in emergency, when no other method is available, but not on a routine basis. As seen here, there is an additional inhumane aspect, restraining the bird by standing on it, but I do not know whether any better method of restraining a duck for neck-twisting is readily available. With these provisos, in my view the deaths seen here were fairly quick and, for this method, relatively humane.

Force feeding of ducks
Individually caged ducks are shown having a tube pushed down the throat and semi-liquid feed injected, presumably under pressure. There is no sign of them “coming forward voluntarily” for feeding as is often said of this process. To the contrary, several ducks appear to be actively avoiding the worker’s hand by crouching low in the cage, as he reaches to grasp the head of the next bird to be fed – although their ability to get away is extremely limited in the very small cage. After feeding, each duck shakes its head, gapes repeatedly, and holds its head up while gulping, all of which appear to demonstrate acute discomfort.

    It is my view that the force feeding of poultry for foie gras production is cruel. I append below a letter I wrote to the American Veterinary Medical Association in 2004, explaining this point.

Shackling and slaughter of ducks
We see ducks on shackles entering and leaving what seems to be a water-bath electric stunner, and a slaughterer cutting the neck of three birds and reaching for a fourth. Duck 2 seems to be holding its head up, which is usually a sign of consciousness, but is not moving and does not show any physical reaction to neck cutting. Ducks 1, 3 and 4 are also holding their heads up, and flapping: they appear to be completely conscious before neck cutting, and ducks 1 and 3 appear to be fully conscious after neck cutting.

    The electric stunner appears to be working inadequately or perhaps not at all. Cutting the necks of ducks without prior stunning causes severe pain until loss of blood leads to unconsciousness.

Force-fed ducks inside cages
The video shows that the house and the individual duck cages are filthy and poorly maintained. Each cage is only just larger than a duck, preventing them from turning round or from making much movement at all except with the head. This will cause chronic frustration of much of the ducks’ normal behaviour. The problems of such severe behavioural restriction for welfare have been demonstrated scientifically in many farm animals, including poultry.

    Given the opportunity all birds preen frequently, as good plumage condition is very important for them. These birds do not even have enough space to preen, and they are severely bedraggled. One is shown with mucus hanging from its bill, which suggest a health problem or at least lack of self-care. The birds have had their bills trimmed (to reduce cannibalism in high-density large-group housing at an earlier stage in life), which is a painful mutilation removing the important, sensory bill tip; this will also have reduced their ability to preen normally.

    The ducks are gaping, which arises from the abdominal distension and breathing difficulty caused by force feeding.

In my view, the welfare of these birds is very poor. I am told that at this stage of force feeding, ducks were dying throughout the process, with mortality increasing from a few per day in the first ten days to six or more per day (per 300 birds) in the final few days. That report is highly credible, given the condition of the birds, their housing and their treatment shown here.

Michael Appleby

12th June 2007

Dr. Michael C. Appleby
Welfare Policy Adviser
World Society for the Protection of Animals
89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP, UK
Tel +44 (0) 20 7840 6243
michaelappleby@wspa.org.uk
Formerly Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh