Animal Law Podcast #7 — The Battle Against Foie Gras With Kelsey Eberly

Jasmin and I were just in France, and, though we had a wonderful time and piles of delicious vegan food, sadly, the foie gras was everywhere. It is, after all, Christmas, and apparently that’s considered the perfect season to eat the swollen, diseased liver of a duck or goose who has repeatedly had food forced down his throat.

Foie gras is also the topic for this month’s Animal Law Podcast, though we’ll be talking about banning it, not eating it for the holidays. Our guest is Kelsey Eberly, an attorney with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, who is heading up their current efforts to get this abomination off the table and into the dustbin of history. From a federal petition to have foie gras, which is, after all, the liver of a seriously ill animal, declared an “adulterated” food, to defending, so far unsuccessfully, California’s law banning the sale of this hideous food, ALDF has mounted numerous efforts against foie gras. Tune in to hear Kelsey go into detail on each of them.

Before Kelsey joins me, I’ll also be talking about foie gras, and specifically about the Israeli Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision to ban force-feeding. My colleague David Wolfson and I wrote an article about that a few years back, and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a decision that remains intensely interesting for anyone who cares about animals.

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