Foie gras ban poised to go back into effect

State ban of duck and geese liver consumption needs final court order

If you’re a lover of liver from duck or geese, your days of gorging on the delicacy are numbered in California.

A state ban of the dish known as foie gras was upheld after the U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal by farms that raise the engorged birds and chefs who serve the luxury pate.

However, the federal appeals court in Los Angeles that upheld the ban in 2017 must issue a final order for the ban to take effect. And Santa Monica attorney Michael Tenenbaum, who represents the groups challenging the ban, said the fight isn’t over. Arguing that federal poultry regulations supersede California’s, he said he plans to ask the court to continue allowing the sale of foie gras in the state “while the case proceeds to trial.”

Meantime, animal rights groups rejoiced Tuesday at the victory.

“The wheels of justice turn slowly, but the legal system has finally caught up to animal torturers masquerading as food purveyors in California,” Bryan Pease of the Animal Protection and Rescue League, a San Diego-based

group that advocated for the ban, told the Bay Area News Group. “There is no excuse for force-feeding an animal to the point of organ rupture and death for a table treat.”

The issue has been simmering in courts for years since lawmakers in 2004 barred California farmers from producing it. But that ban was not scheduled to go into effect until 2012

That year, fans of the delicacy were given 100 days’ notice before the prohibition started, and they flocked to foie gras dinners throughout the Bay Area.

During the prohibition period afterward, some chefs got around the law, which specifically forbade the sale of foie gras, by giving it away. But they risked demonstrations by animal rights protesters when doing so.

Home chefs could purchase foie gras legally online from out-of-state or out-of-country producers.

Farmers in Canada and New York and a restaurant then challenged part of the law that banned liver produced out of state from being sold, which led to a resumption of foie gras dishes being served in California restaurants. That group, the challengers represented by Tenenbaum, is called CHEFS, the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards.

Foie gras and the law

California’s ban on the production and sale of foie gras (pronounced fwah grah), which has been winding its way through the courts, originally went into effect July 1, 2012, eight years after SB 1520 (by then-Sen. John Burton) was signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in 2004.

The long lead time was intended to give the state’s sole producer, Sonoma Foie Gras, ample time to “modify its business practices.” However, the law also applied to the sale here of foie gras produced outside California. If there is no further stay, the law that would go back into effect says:

“A person may not force-feed a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird’s liver beyond normal size, or hire another person to do so.

“A product may not be sold in California if it is the result of force-feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird’s liver beyond normal size.

“A peace officer, officer of a humane society or officer of an animal control or animal regulation department of a public agency may issue a citation to a person or entity that violates this chapter.

“A citation issued under this section shall require the person cited to pay a civil penalty in an amount up to $1,000 for each violation, and up to $1,000 for each day the violation continues.”