Avella reminds me of Carmel California where they banned eating Ice Cream in the street. What's next?Mandatory curfew for dogs. Mandatory airconditioning for cats. Get the hook out boys.We need extra large for this guy.

Any public official taking a humane stand against animal abuse should be applauded.

To produce foie gras, geese and ducks are force-fed unnatural amounts of grain by shoving pipes down their throats, which can cause painful lacerations and even organ rupture. More and more restaurants are removing this shameful product from their menus. And legislation in the US and abroad has banned the sale and production of foie gras. New York should do the right thing and follow this humane lead.

I agree that someone taking a stand against animal abuse should be commended. At the same time, though, how can he say he's "been active in animal rights issues" when he says he knows nothing about factory farms?

As a society, we need to be able to stand up for all wrongs and not compare one wrong to another. Who deserves more attention - Gays, African Americans, Latinos, Disabled, Children, Elderly, Women, Native Americans? THEY ALL DO! Each human population and every aniaml population has its own issues that are similar and unique and they all merit attention. The oversimplified comparison/contrast by some people on this blog only serves to form competition. The pro foie gras people on this site - have you so little empathy that you cannot spare a little for gentle, defenseless animals without a voice. While foie gras may not be an everyday food for the majority of people, it is an actively cruel and grostesque process of making a bird so sick it can barely stand up and breathe so allowing it to go on simply for its' taste is cruel and unethical. Geese are highly social and loyal birds that fly next to injured birds singing them songs of encouragement so they can garner the strength to keep flying, they are monogamous, and are so revered for their community rituals that videos are made for teambuidling purposes using geese as examples to aspire to. As for the pain they experience, the birds in nature do gorge themselves prior to migrating, but in factory foie gras farms, THEY DO NOT DETERMINE AND SELF REGULATE HOW MUCH FOOD TO INGEST AND THEY DO NOT MIGRATE!!!! We just keep overfeeding them until they drop! Birds stop long before the point of respiratory distress so they are able to fly! Autopsies of birds used for foie gras show massive ruptures in their trachea, esophagus, with livers so overly enlarged that the pressure against their lungs creates massive respiratory distress and illness. This is hardly a natural and painless pre-migration health status that foier gras proponents like to refer to order to rationalize their greed. Given the number of workers in foie gras farms and the number of birds who must be force fed 3 times a day, there is no possibility for each worker to be gentle with each and every bird! All factory farming is cruel and each sick process of treating animals as "products" on a conveyer belt needs urgent attention. As a vegetarian, I want no part of eating any sentient being. For those who insist on eating animals, WE CAN DO BETTER AND RAISE ANIMALS FOR FOOD IN MORE HUMANE CONDITIONS! Europe and other countries are far more advanced in this area and we need to follow their lead. Foie gras is banned in 12 countries and even the Pope has declared it inhumane.

I find it interesting that one of the posts compared banning the eating of ice cream in the streets to torturing animals.

The production of foie gras is horribly cruel. Shoving a metal pipe down a bird's throat several times a day and stuffing his stomach with enormous amounts of food is a sickening and shameful practice. I've seen the films, and pictures of birds who had died suffocating on their own vomit. Because of the swelling of their organs and the fact that these organs press on their lungs and make it difficult for them to breath, they are in constant pain. The industry tries to say that the birds don't suffer, but you can go on the Internet to a site like YouTube, and view a video of birds being force fed, then see if you think that there's nothing wrong with it. Imagine if someone was doing this to you.

Foie gras is produced by thrusting a metal pipe down the throats of ducks and force-feeding them enormous quantities of food several times a day !!!
Imagine doing this to yourself ..
The no humane way of force feeding these poor birds , and the only humane solution is by banning foie gras and ending it's production .