AR-News: (US) Animal-rights vandals hit chef's home, shop - Activists call French-style foie gras cruel to birds

[Animalconcerns Info]

A top San Francisco chef has become the target of radical animal-rights
activists in a series of attacks that police are calling domestic terrorism.

Aqua chef Laurent Manrique has been the victim of vandals who
spray-painted his home and splashed his car with acid, and he has received
threatening letters and videotapes.

It's part of what police say may be a national campaign aimed at those who
produce a signature ingredient of French haute cuisine -- foie gras -- and
the chefs who use it.

Foie gras -- fattened goose or duck liver -- has become controversial
because of the way it is produced, which involves force-feeding fowl. How
much the animals suffer -- or whether they suffer at all -- has been the
subject of much debate.

The worst damage came last week when vandals broke into the new foie gras
specialty store and restaurant that Manrique and his partners had planned
to open next month in a historic adobe building on the Sonoma Plaza. 
...
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have a national campaign
against the nation's three foie gras producers. That includes the
California operation, in which Jaubert and Manrique are working with
Guillermo Gonzalez and his company, Sonoma Foie Gras, to create a new,
hand-crafted line of liver.
...
Cem Akin of Santa Cruz, a research associate with PETA, denied that his
group is involved with the foie gras violence in the Bay Area, but he
called foie gras "one of the most egregiously cruel food products out
there." But Jaubert and Manrique say the ducks, which are raised and
processed on an old walnut farm near Stockton, are not caged, have ample
water and shade, and aren't stressed. The company processes about 1,200
ducks a week. 

full story:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/08/19/MN245934.DTL

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