Chicago repeals foie gras ban

by Dave Keating | May 14, 2008 at 08:47 pm | 135 views | add comment | 0 recommendations

Veganstar targets foie gras & veal merchants

This issue has been going on forever in Chicago! Foie gras is opposed by some animal rights activitsts. To make foie gras, tubes are inserted down the throats of ducks andgeese that are then fed until their livers swell to 10 times theirnormal size.

Chicago's aldermen showed Wednesday that they have had their fill of the ban on foie gras and made it legal once again for city restaurants to serve up the delicacy made from duck and goose liver.

Mayor Richard Daley, who had once dismissed the ban as "the silliest law the City Council has ever passed," squelched debate on the measure and commanded the council to vote. Looming above the council at the dais, his arms crossed and his gaze stern, he ignored the repeated, shouted objections of the ban's sponsor, Ald. Joe Moore (49th).

After the 37-6 vote, Daley seemed weary of the topic, as he noted the widespread attention that the ban has brought to Chicago since its passage.

"There's been extensive, extensive, extensive debate on this," Daley told reporters after the council meeting. "This has been talked about, debated about constantly by international, national, local press, media, by the whole hospitality, culinary field, all of it . . . This has been going on forever."