We are seeing the true character of these businesses when they lie about the source of the products that they sell. The farm in question, Aux Champs d'Elise openly admits that they produce foie gras through force-feeding, or "gavage." As consumers, we have a right to know the truth of how our food is produced. This dishonesty is unacceptable.

The only way to make ethically informed choices as a consumer is by having reliable information to work with. In lying to his customers and the general public/press, the owner of this establishment makes it impossible for people to make the choices that are required of them as ethical consumers. I've taken the time to find out what 'all the fuss is about' regarding the production of foie gras and I've come to the realization that it is a totally inhumane (read: without compassion for misery or suffering; cruel) product and seeing as I'd never treat my family pet or any other sentient creature in such a horrible manner, I refuse to spend my money on it or at any restaurant that serves it up. The owner of this Vancouver restaurant cannot claim ignorance to how these products are produced, nor can there be any excuse for lying to his customers.

One would have to wonder why one would lie to their customers??

• Foie gras is the French term for "fatty liver". Marketed as a gourmet food, foie gras is a product of extreme cruelty to animals.

• In modern foie gras factory farms, geese and ducks are intensively raised in large, enclosed barns and never see daylight until they are taken to slaughter.

• For the last 2 weeks of their lives, the birds are forced into individual wire mesh cages, barely larger than their bodies, which virtually lock the birds in place. Thus restrained, the birds are unable to escape the farm workers and mechanized feeding system.

• One by one, the farm worker grabs each immobilized bird and forces a metal pipe down their throats. An enormous amount of a corn-and-oil mixture is pumped by a machine directly into their gullets in just a few seconds—up to one-third of the birds' own body weight each day.

• Birds suffer tremendously during and after the force-feeding process. Within a few weeks, their livers have swollen up to ten times their normal size, and the birds can scarcely stand, walk, or even breathe. Birds on foie gras farms have been observed panting and struggling to stand, using their wings to push themselves forward when their crippled legs can no longer support them.

• The mortality rate on foie gras farms is up to 20 times higher than the death rate on conventional duck farms. Birds used in foie gras production often die when the metal feeding tubes puncture their necks, when their stomachs literally "burst" from the enormous volume of food they are forced to ingest and when force-feeding overfills them to the point of suffocation.

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the name of the restaurant cited in the article is "West" on Granville St. in Vancouver. The foie gras has been removed from their online menu (presumably to further mislead and confuse), but is still readily available in the restaurant.

It is just a shame, i used to eat these like You eat chocolates without respect and conscience about how the Animals are treated. It's just medieval at industrial scale: Mass-Torture of Innocence. I'm ashamed of myself, i'm ashamed of my country that produces and promotes this bloodshed, carefully removing the bloody parts to make it more appetizing.

The true "tragedy" is the fact that this delightful delicacy is being forced from the menu because of the moral rantings of a few vegan & PETA eco-terrorists. Yes, I know the process. And after sampling a morsel of Tournedos Rossini, it is irrelevant. If YOU don’t like it, then YOU don’t need to order it. I on the other hand will continue to enjoy my foie gras at my favorite French restaurant, without guilt or the need of public self-flagellation.

Foie gras is made from torturing small defenseless animal to the point of complete breakdown. I've personally worked with ducks that were rescued from foie gras production and was shocked at the amount of trauma and torture these animals endure in order to create this "delicacy".

All of the birds I've worked with, during the first week of their liberation completely forget how to eat and swallow.  What's more heartbreaking is that they hide with fear at every meal time. One duck I worked with had two broken legs and is now permanently crippled because they were crushed under his unnaturally fattened body. Depending on what stage of the force feeding at the time of rescue, you can quite often see the shape of the protruding liver underneath the surface of the animal's skin.  One of the ducks I worked with was missing an eye because it literally rotted out of his head because he was locked in a cage and had no access to water for keeping his eyes clean. What the factory farmer don't realize is that ducks are not humans.  They are waterfowl and need to be able to submerse themselves in water all throughout the day.  They are birds and need to spread their wings and fly.  When waterfowl are locked up in individual cages, unable to spread their wings or swim, they are suffering a lot more than you would if you were put in the same situation.  

The foodie gluttons often accuse animal defenders of "anthropomorphism".  They misuse this word because the gluttons usually have very little knowledge of the animals they call food.  Having worked with the foie gras ducks, I know that anthropomorphism happens when humans put water/avian animals locked up in dry cages and call it humane.  Anthropomorphism further happens when a person shoves a metal pipe down the throats of ducks and justify it by saying that the birds have strong asophagi and that they like being force fed. Anthropomorphism happens again when the gluttons claim that the ducks are migratory birds and that it is natural for them to gorge.  Yet none of the breeds of ducks used for foie gras production are migratory or engage in any gorging activity.  

The gluttons like to pretend but they seem to never get their facts straight.  The gluttons are insecure that's why they need to eat foie gras at a restaurant in order to feel important. The gluttons lack substance because they don't know how else to validate themselves if foie gras disappeared from the menu.  And this is why the gluttons will lose this war.

im2techy, how would you like a long metal pole shoved down your throat three times a day and being gorged to the point where you suffocate on your own vomit?

Canada should be ashamed of itself for continuing to produce foie gras, and bravo, hurrah to the National Post for printing this item. Awareness is the answer. Until we all "meet our meat", the torture of defenceless animals will continue unabated.

I recommend that every decent human being who is horrified by this process log on to http://www.nofoiegras.org/

where you will see a form that enables you to register a complaint with our federal agriculture minister.

I would love to organize a protest in Toronto if there are other people interested in joining me. I can get materials such as leaflets and posters.