On this day in vegan history · July 1, 2012
California's Foie Gras Ban Finally Takes Effect
Eight years after the governor signed it, California's ban on force-fed duck liver became real law, and the fight over it was only getting started.
The facts
- Took effect
- July 1, 2012, under California Health and Safety Code §§ 25981–25982
- Signed into law
- September 29, 2004, by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Author
- State Senate President pro tempore John Burton
- Final word
- U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case on January 7, 2019, letting the Ninth Circuit's ruling upholding the ban stand
On July 1, 2012, California's ban on force-feeding birds to produce foie gras, and on selling the product that process makes, went into effect. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had signed the bill, authored by Senate President pro tempore John Burton, on September 29, 2004, but lawmakers built in an eight-year runway meant to give producers time to find another way to make foie gras without a tube. No one found one. Restaurants and foie gras producers sued almost immediately after the ban took effect, and the law would spend the better part of a decade being fought over in federal court before it was confirmed to stand.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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We just shouldn't be cramming a tube down a duck's throat and forcing in food to make foie gras
State Senate President pro tempore John Burton, on the bill he authored
Source: Wikipedia -
Do you think the duck enjoys that?
Ninth Circuit Judge Harry Pregerson, from the bench during 2017 oral arguments over the sales ban
Source: In Defense of Animals
Why it still matters
It was one of the first American laws to ban a specific factory-farming production method outright rather than just regulate it, and its survival through nearly a decade of industry litigation showed that kind of ban could actually hold.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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