Duck livers and nanny government

ABCNews Nightline had a report last night (3-29-07) about the Chicago ban on selling foie gras. One of the "reactions" they had in the piece was a guy complaining about "nanny government." I wish a had vid-clip for it because it was the most important part of the entire report. However, on the Nightline message board at abcnews.com was this post:

When we are children it is our family and our community who teach us what is acceptable behavior, including how to be kind to all creatures. Unfortunately, as adults we need to rely on all kinds of legal forces and governing bodies to keep society in check to protect that which cannot protect itself. The foie gras issue should not be focused on ducks, restaurants, or what people have acquired a taste for. Instead , the focus should be cruelty and the lack of conscience in man. It defies my imagination for humans to justify the continuation of this cruel food on the grounds of entitlement. One has to wonder what kind of person/culture it takes to create and perpetuate such barbaric cruelty. Mayor Daley need not be embarrassed by a city council who want less cruelty in the world, rather he better be checking his own attitudes about why he does not feel that cruelty in the heart of man is not exceedingly more important than what he prefers to eat. Yes, Mayor Daley eats foie gras.

It is a sad commentary of our society when bad becomes good and good becomes bad. The world will always have its share of those whose main concern is self with no concept of sacrifice even if it halts cruelty. I want to live in a world where there are many Joe Moores who are not afraid to stand for compassion and who make a diligent effort to reduce cruelty.

There is nothing in the world more dangerous than a conscienceless human: think war. Thank you ABC for showing it like it is.
[posted by stop_slavery]

My first thought was to have the people who want to eat or serve this stuff be required to do the forced feeding of these creatures for the entire time it takes to produce their precious fatty liver they feel they have a "right" to eat or serve. At the same time, the person doing the forced feeding is to be fed the same way as stated in a post subsequent to the one above:

I'd like to see someone shove a feeding tube down your throat like the cruel procedure done to those ducks. I have a feeling that the people who order this off the menu really have no idea of the torture done to these animals. It is inhumane. Period. It doesn't have to be this way. [posted by tjshybow]

It is precisely the mindset that sees nothing wrong with doing this to ducks and geese that leads to a policy of rescinding the Geneva Conventions against torture. As Mencius said over 2000 years ago, "the feeling of commiseration is the beginning of humanity" and "the feeling of right and wrong is the beginning of wisdom."