Activists to ask Wolfgang Puck to Stop Torturing Ducks

SAN FRANCISCO ACTIVISTS ASK WOLFGANG PUCK TO “STOP SELLING TORTURED DUCKS”

Thursday, March 03, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Gene Bauston, 607-583-2225, extension 227

San Francisco, CA - This Saturday (March 5), compassionate activists in San Francisco will gather on behalf of Farm Sanctuary outside of Wolfgang Puck’s Postrio restaurant (located at 545 Post St.) to ask Puck to stop selling two products of egregious animal cruelty: foie gras and white veal.

The San Francisco protest, beginning at 5:30 p.m., marks the first of many weekly protests to be held outside of Postrio and is part of a nationwide, ongoing campaign to convince Puck to remove veal and foie gras from his menus. It will also coincide with protests being held every weekend outside of Puck’s Spago restaurant in Beverly Hills.

Foie gras and veal production are notorious for the suffering they inflict on animals. On foie gras farms, ducks are confined in tiny, box-like individual cages that virtually immobilize them for weeks. During this time, they are force fed huge amounts of food several times a day in order to enlarge their livers up to ten times their normal size. The resultant, fatty mass is sold as “foie gras” in restaurants like Postrio.

Veal calves raised for “white veal” suffer similar confinement and cruel feeding practices. Taken from their mothers at birth, these calves are chained by the neck inside tiny crates that allow them no freedom of movement. Turning around and lying down comfortably are impossible. Their diet consists of an all-liquid, iron-deficient formula that leaves many anemic, weak, and pale.

Wolfgang Puck, perhaps more than any other restaurateur in the U.S., is responsible for perpetuating these cruel practices because of his insistence on featuring them prominently on the menus of his dining establishments. As an extremely high-profile, ‘celebrity’ chef, Puck plays a large part in keeping the cruel foie gras and veal industries alive.

Although Farm Sanctuary activists have tried to engage Puck in a dialogue repeatedly about his promotion of foie gras and veal, he has turned a deaf ear to their concerns. “We hope that Mr. Puck will become more open to a dialogue about compassionate choices as more cities join in the weekly protests against his use of cruel foie gras and veal,” said Gene Bauston, Farm Sanctuary’s co-founder and president.

In August 2004, the California legislature outlawed the production and sale of foie gras in the state, effective in 2012. Several other states are currently considering similar bills to ban foie gras this year, and bills have been introduced in three states this year to ban the use of veal crates. For more information on these bills see http://www.farmsanctuary.org, and for information on the campaign against Wolfgang Puck, see http://www.WolfgangPuckCruelty.org.