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10/24/03 - An ongoing clash between foie gras producers and animal rights activists spilled over into California's courts this week with competing lawsuits filed in San Joaquin and Sonoma counties.

At issue is whether overfeeding ducks to produce enlarged - and tasty - livers is a benign practice that simply takes advantage of the birds' natural gorging-before-migration habits or is deliberate animal cruelty and thus banned under current California laws. Sonoma Valley residents Guillermo and Junny Gonzales, owners of Sonoma Foie Gras, filed suit Monday in San Joaquin County, where their duck farm is located.

A late-night break-in to remove four ducks from the Sonoma Foie Gras farm was documented with a story and photos in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, Sept. 18. The complaint filed on Monday alleges that members of the Animal Protection and Rescue League repeatedly trespassed at the Sonoma Foie Gras farm, stole a few of the 20,000 ducks at that location and used the media "to portray the farming conditions in an unfavorable light."

The lawsuit charges the defendants are trying to "coerce and intimidate the Plaintiff from continuing its farming operations" and want to put Sonoma Foie Gras out of business. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to keep the defendants away from the duck farm.

The Animal Protection and Rescue League, which is based in Onondaga County, N.Y., but maintains an office in San Francisco, joined with the nationwide nonprofit In Defense of Animals and filed suit in Sonoma County on Wednesday, alleging that Sonoma Foie Gras is in violation of state laws against animal cruelty and abuse. The suit seeks to have force-feeding declared illegal under the state's existing animal cruelty laws. It calls for a declaration that Sonoma Foie Gras' operations are unlawful because they are cruel and asks for a permanent injunction against the company's force-feeding of ducks in any manner.

"In order to produce foie gras, defendants force-feed ducks, deliberately causing a disease clinically referred to as hepatic lipidosis, characterized by a painful swelling of the liver," according to the activists' lawsuit.

Animal Protection and Rescue League member Kath Rogers, who is named a defendant in the suit filed by Sonoma Foie Gras, said force-feeding of ducks crosses a line where cruelty automatically becomes illegal.

"We think this is a good avenue to show the public what is going on in other (food) industries. ... There are so many animals on these farms that these farms have become factories," Rogers said. "When farms become factories with tens of thousands of animals, there is no way that animal welfare comes first. Profit always comes first."

The paperwork filed by Sonoma Foie Gras presents a completely different viewpoint, citing the fact that both federal and state agricultural regulations allow foie gras production; and that when inspected, the company's duck farm was found to be clean and well-run.

"Enhanced feeding of ducks cannot be judged by the same standards that apply to people and other mammals," according to the Sonoma Foie Gras suit. "People and other mammals have a larynx in their throats and a gag reflex when they swallow too much food, which could cause them pain. However, ducks do not have the same physical makeup or such a gag reflex. Ducks have a storage organ that is designed for gorging. Ducks do not suffer pain when they gorge."

Sam Singer, spokesman for Sonoma Foie Gras, said the company has had an excellent reputation and record for 17 years.

"It's a small, family-run operation and they can't abide with having people who break the law and who admittedly trespass and steal from them."

Singer added that he believes the animal activists' lawsuit will be dismissed for lack of merit.

"There is no basis for it and it is untrue," Singer said.

Animal Protection and Rescue League member Bryan Pease - also named as a defendant in the suit filed by Sonoma Foie Gras - disagreed.

"The USDA only monitors the slaughtering process and not the force-feeding so no local, state or federal agency has ever determined that force feeding ducks with a purpose of drastically expanding their livers is in accordance with California's anti-cruelty law," Pease said. "That's what our lawsuit seeks to remedy."

The Sonoma Foie Gras lawsuit also claims that the animal rights activists want to ban meat, poultry, fish and eggs, and to have all Americans eat a "vegan" or vegetarian diet. That is untrue, Pease said.

"Members of our organization are vegans; we don't consume animal products as a matter of personal ethics," he said. "But foie gras production violates the law as far as we're concerned. We're not after banning meat. That's not what our lawsuit is all about."

Sonoma Foie Gras owners Guillermo and Junny Gonzales are also partners in Sonoma Saveurs, a proposed Sonoma Plaza bistro that is expected to open sometime soon.

Sonoma Saveurs' empty storefront was vandalized this summer, as were the Bay Area homes of other partners working to develop the small restaurant. Water damage to the storefront briefly closed two other businesses in the historic adobe building.

Pease said the Animal Protection and Rescue League had nothing to do with those attacks.

"Our organization is completely nonviolent," Pease said. "We don't destroy property. We don't hurt others. Everything we do is done openly. We don't hide our faces."

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