Humane Organizations Speak Out Against the AVMA’s Cruel Policies

The following humane organizations are committed to changing the AVMA’s positions on the use of gestation crates and/or the production of foie gras. Here’s what they’re saying:

About Gestation Crates
“In 2002, the AVMA adopted a resolution approving use of gestation crates in ‘pork’ production, in which a pregnant sow is confined for months in a barren metal enclosure that prevents her from moving more than a few inches from side to side, producing both severe physical and psychological damage.”
—Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights

“The inhumane treatment of hogs in animal factories begins with conception. Female hogs, called sows, spend their pregnancies in crates two feet wide and seven feet long. Breeding sows spend the majority of their reproductive lives confined in gestation crates barely larger than their bodies.”
—The Humane Society of the United States

“Gestation crates, narrow metal enclosures where female breeding pigs are confined for most of their lives, have been outlawed by European countries because of humane concerns, and Farm Sanctuary is campaigning to ban these inhumane devices in the United States.”
—Farm Sanctuary

The ASPCA has filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey Department of Agriculture for passing inhumane animal-welfare standards for farmed animals, including “[t]he use of gestation crates, which confine breeding pigs for months on [end] and in an enclosed area too small for them to turn around. The crates are banned in Florida and several European nations.”
—American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

“In 2002, Florida voters outlawed the use of sow stalls in that state. Sow stalls are barren metal cages barely larger than the sow herself in which the pregnant animal spends most of her life. She can’t turn around or lie down comfortably, let alone exercise. But when California legislators tried for a similar ban, it was quickly derailed because AVMA policy says it is fine to confine pigs in a cage so small they are unable to walk or even turn around for most of their lives.”
—Animal Rights International

“The cages are so small that the animals cannot walk, lie down comfortably, or even turn around. The pregnant pig stays in the crate for nearly her entire four-month pregnancy, at which time she is moved to a different type of crate (farrowing crate) until shortly after she gives birth, when she is again impregnated and returned to the gestation crate for another cycle. These crates inhibit normal pig behavior and cause significant physical and psychological disorders.”
—Animal Welfare Trust

About Foie Gras
“Foie gras is made from the unnaturally enlarged livers of ducks and geese who have been cruelly force-fed. Birds raised for foie gras are confined to cages and fed a high-protein, high-starch diet designed to promote rapid growth. When they are between eight [and] ten weeks old, ducks and geese are subjected to gavage feeding: A tube is pushed 5 inches down their throats so they can be force-fed up to 2 pounds of grain and fat two to three times a day for the next three weeks. On average, they are force-fed 20 to 30 percent of their body weight each day. Sometimes a stick is used to force it down.”
—United Poultry Concerns

“Foie gras is produced by force-feeding ducks or geese large amounts of food so that their livers swell to up to 10 times normal size. A pipe is shoved down the bird’s esophagus and food is forced into the stomach. The process is repeated two or three times daily for two to three weeks until the birds … are … slaughtered to produce foie gras.”
—Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights

In 1992, the HSUS sent a veterinarian to investigate a New York State foie gras producer, which resulted in a police raid and cruelty charges against the farm. Necropsies taken of the dead birds revealed many painful conditions: The force-fed birds had chronic heart disorders; ruptured liver cell membranes; cirrhosis; traumatic esophagitis; and lesions in their gizzards and intestines. Dead birds were found with food filling their esophagi and spilling out of their nostrils.
—The Humane Society of the United States

“[D]ucks raised for foie gras have difficulty standing, walking, and even breathing. Many of them die before the end of the force-feeding cycle, and the mortality rate for ducks raised on foie gras farms is among the highest in the farming industry. Necropsies performed on foie gras ducks have shown extreme obesity, impaction of undigested food in the esophagus, lacerations in the throat, and a proliferation of bacterial and fungal growth in their upper digestive tracts.”
—Farm Sanctuary