NY Senate Majority Leader Confronts Foie Gras Producer for Abusive Conditions

Neighboring producer faces class action

LIBERTY, N.Y., Aug. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senator Pedro Espada
confronted the manager of Hudson Valley Foie Gras in person at the farm on
Friday, as reported in Wednesday's NY Daily News. To constantly force feed
ducks with long metal pipes so their livers painfully expand to over 10 times
in size, migrant workers are given little sleep and no days off. Female
workers also told of sexual abuse and harassment common at the farm.

The visit comes right after settlement of a class action filed against LaBelle
Farm, another foie gras producer in Liberty, for failure to pay minimum wage
or overtime, "abysmal working conditions," and "charging its workers an
astronomical fee for transportation from Mexico to the foie gras plant, and by
housing the workers in a severely dilapidated labor camp." The case is
Iglesias-Mendoza v. LaBelle Farm, Inc., Southern District of New York case
number 06CIV1756.

"Our animal cruelty investigators found ducks with holes punched through their
necks, hanging over pools of blood next to live ducks in pens where they are
force fed at Labelle Farm," states Christina Tacoronti, campaigns coordinator
for the Animal Protection & Rescue League. Photos and video are available.

APRL investigations and a lawsuit filed with In Defense of Animals spurred
enactment of Cal. Health & Safety Code section 25980, banning the sale and
production of foie gras in California, effective 2012. The cities of San
Francisco, Berkeley, West Hollywood, Solana Beach and San Diego have recently
passed resolutions in support of the ban.

"We are hoping that New York will ban force fed cruelty as California has, and
enact Senator Espada's bill to end farmworker abuse, as these issues are
intimately connected," states Bryan Pease, attorney for APRL. "Cesar Chavez
was outspoken about being vegan for animal rights reasons, and his
organization United Farmworkers has continued to take strong positions against
factory farm cruelty."

Whole Foods has refused to sell foie gras since 1997 after representatives
went to Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Others to remove this product of animal
torture recently include Disney World, Bay Area based Andronico's Market, San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's Plumpjack Group, Wolfgang Puck, and several
resort hotels in the San Diego area including the Hotel Del Coronado.

More information is at www.banfoiegras.org and www.APRL.org/foiegras.html.

SOURCE Animal Protection & Rescue League

Bryan Pease of Animal Protection & Rescue League, +1-619-723-0369