For Immediate Release
June 2, 2008

Vancouver – Café de Paris is the latest in a string of restaurants that have stopped serving foie gras since Liberation BC launched a campaign to ban the sales of foie gras in Vancouver three months ago. On Friday, May 30, Members of LBC showed up for their weekly protest outside Café de Paris only to be greeted by a 20 foot banner that ran along the front of the restaurant reading “we do not serve foie gras.” The restaurant staff verbally confirmed that foie gras has been removed permanently from the menu.

Foie gras is a pricey French delicacy made from the diseased fatty liver of ducks and geese who have been force-fed to the point of death. Birds on foie gras farms endure painful force-feeding in which a massive amount of food (approximately 1/3 of their body-weight each day) is pumped into their stomachs using a long metal pipe. During this process, the birds often suffer from lacerated or punctured trachea, blindness due to a lack of water to bathe in, and suffocation from being over-impacted with food.

Ethical concerns have resulted in the banning of foie gras production in 15 countries as well as several US jurisdictions. Pope Benedict XVI considers foie gras production against Biblical principles, Prince Charles has banished the dish from all his royal menus, and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is making it illegal in California. To date, Canada remains a large producer and consumer of foie gras despite public outcry.

“We would like to congratulate Café de Paris for making the compassionate decision to stop serving foie gras” says Liberation BC Campaign Director Joanne Chang. “When the oldest French restaurant drops foie gras from their menu, it’s a sure sign that the times are changing.” Earlier last year top Vancouver restaurant Cioppino’s dropped foie gras due to ethical concerns. This year, after the launch of LBC’s campaign, West, Lift, Cru, Meinhardt, The Greedy Pig, Urban Fare, Oyama Sausage Company, and now Café de Paris have stopped selling foie gras.