Urge famous chef to Stop Promoting Animal Abuse

As one of America’s most high profile ‘celebrity’ chefs, Wolfgang Puck has had a huge hand in promoting both foie gras and 'white' veal among American consumers. It is widely acknowledged that these items are produced by some of the cruelest farming practices imaginable-- practices so patently cruel that they have been outlawed in countries around the world.
While hundreds of restaurants and chefs across the nation have pledged to stop serving crated veal and foie gras because of their inherent cruelty, Puck continues to flout the facts and to feature these items on the menus of his eateries, in his cookbooks, and on his television cooking show. Please encourage Wolfgang Puck to stop pushing veal and foie gras, and to join the growing number of chefs, restaurateurs, and other conscientious citizens who eschew these products of egregious animal cruelty.

Mr.
Puck has ignored the many earnest efforts of humane advocates to educate


him about the cruelty behind foie gras and veal and to urge him to stop
promoting them. While hundreds of restaurants and chefs across the nation
have pledged to stop serving crated veal and foie gras because of their
inherent cruelty, Puck continues to flout the facts and to feature these
items on the menus of his eateries, in his cookbooks, and on his television
cooking show.

As
long as Mr. Puck promotes veal and foie gras to the public, he is helping
sustain industries that are steeped in cruelty. He is also going against
the majority of public opinion: More than 70% of Americans polled state
their opposition to the force feeding of birds to produce foie gras, and
polls have repeatedly shown that most Americans oppose the use of veal
crates.

Many
countries in Europe—including Puck’s native country of Austria—have
outlawed crated veal production because of its inherent cruelty. Likewise,
in six out of nine Austrian provinces the force feeding of animals for
foie gras production is illegal, just as it is in at least a dozen countries
globally.

Foie
gras, the French term for "fatty liver," is the product of extreme animal
cruelty. It is the swollen, diseased liver of ducks and geese who are force-fed
just up until the point of death before being slaughtered. Birds suffer tremendously,
both during and after the force-feeding process, as their physical condition rapidly
deterioriates. In just a few weeks, their livers swell up to ten times their normal
size, and the birds can scarcely stand, walk, or even breathe. At this point,
they are slaughtered, and their livers are peddled as a "gourmet" delicacy.

Please Mr. Wolfgang Puck, stop pushing veal and foie gras, and join
the growing number of chefs, restaurateurs, and other conscientious citizens
who eschew these products of egregious animal cruelty.

Sincerely,