LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

No more foie gras after that column

A chef prepares to slice a portion of foie gras, a fatty duck liver delicacy.

I was appalled by the final line of Blade Food Editor Daniel Neman's May 15 column, "Honk if you like foie gras." Referring to the force-feeding of geese to make foie gras, a delicacy he obviously enjoys, he quotes a friend who is a restaurant critic: "Yes, I know how it is made, and no, I don't care."

While I am not a crazed animal rights activist, I find this attitude disturbing. We have laws that regulate the raising and slaughter of animals used for food.

Does Mr. Neman advocate banging cattle over the head with a sledgehammer to obtain his filet mignon? Or keeping chickens in a coop of thousands knee deep in dung to get his eggs?

I like foie gras. But once I learned how it is made, I no longer partake of it.

Cruelty on any level is cruelty. If you tolerate only a little cruelty, does that make it OK?

Sharon Tobian

Adella Street

Getting delicacy is too indelicate

The systematic force-feeding, confining, and immobilizing of an animal are cruel and unethical. All that for liver?

A duck or goose cannot speak for itself, and must submit to humans' self-serving disregard for anything except one's own pleasures and appetites. Where are the love and compassion for our fellow creatures?

With this mind-set, it's no wonder that humans continue to use and abuse those that have been placed in our care.

Let us remove the blinders that block the full view of responsibility for the suffering we cause, whether it is animal or human.

Lee Post

Petersburg, Mich.

Writer should check out video

I was appalled that The Blade would publish an article condoning animal abuse.

I wonder whether Mr. Neman would feel the same way after he viewed an online video about force-feeding geese.

Peggy Darrah

Clover Lane