This secretly filmed French foie gras factory footage shows ducklings being tossed in the bin and left to suffocate to death as well as stunned ducks waking up while being killed after being force-fed in tiny cages.
The footage, which is making headlines all over France, was filmed at the Domaine de la Peyrouse foie gras production facility in Coulounieix-Chamiers, on the outskirts of Perigueux, the capital of the Dordogne department in the south-western Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Video Credit: CEN/L214
The footage was released on 10th December by animal rights organisation L214. It was filmed by a whistleblower from October to November 2019.
The L214 spokesperson Barbara Boyer told Central European News (CEN) that the Domaine de la Peyrouse is a training facility affiliated with the Lycee Agricole de Perigueux (the agricultural high school). It is a school that teaches students how to produce foie gras.
In the footage, the male ducklings can be seen being separated from the female ones. The males go on to be force-fed while the females are thrown away alive into huge wheelie bins where they are left to starve or suffocate to death under each other’s bodies.
Barbara Boyer told CEN that the male ducklings have their heads jammed onto a machine that “mutilates them by burning the end of their beaks, in order to limit injuries between birds.”
She added: “The forced cohabitation of hundreds or thousands of animals in most farms promotes aggressive behaviour. Instead of limiting the number of animals on the farms, people in the industry mutilate them by removing their claws and the tip of the beak.”
They are later force-fed for 10 to 12 days, mainly by students, a process that causes them to gasp for breath and to have diarrhoea. According to L214, the animals’ mortality rate increases tenfold during this process.
To prevent them from escaping, a grid comes to immobilise the ducks during the feeding. The ducks are stuffed with a mash using air pumps.
They are subsequently suspended while fully conscious on a slaughter line, before being stunned by being dunked in electrified water and then bled. Some regain consciousness during the process, as can be seen in the footage.
The ducks’ livers are then removed from their bodies.
The Domaine de la Peyrouse’s foie gras, which has the prestigious “Origine Certifiee Perigord” certification label, was given a gold medal at the Concours General Agricole in 2019, a competition established in 1870 by the French government to encourage the country’s produce and which is supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Barbara Boyer confirmed to CEN that L214 has filed a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office against the Domaine de la Payrouse for animal cruelty.
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Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
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