Whether it is cruel to force feed a goose, is another question. For all we know, the goose might like it. If we look around, we can see plenty of morbidly obese people. I shudder to think about the liver of a 400+ lb human.
Those didnt get a wide tube forced down their throats and then had their stomachs filled as much as possible at each meal.
And unlike Foie ducks, humans did not evolve a physiology that lacks any gag reflex and allows swallowing whole spikey fish several times wider than their necks, or the propensity and physiology to aid massive gorging combined with rapid metabolism of large quantities, which is critical to long distance migration.
That is why, except for the cherry picked footage of the worst most cruel farms, duck behavior during the brief end-of-life gavage period contradict what would be observed if the ducks experienced extreme discomfort or pain during the process and found it to be a particularly aversion experience.
Unless its done with needless lack of care, minimal restraint is required during the feedings, even when inserting the tube, because the ducks show little more resistance and struggle than if you were to try and pet one.
4321lynx said:
To imagine that agoose actually enjoys or does not object to force feeding, takes a certain kind of imagination that I do not want to understand.
To blindly presume that ducks experience these feedings like a human would (which is what you and all Foie opponents are doing) takes a kind of ignorance and fallacious anthropomorphism that is contradicted by fact and reason.
Like all interactions with animals, including pet owning, grooming, veterinary practice, and all forms of animal farming, Foie production can be done in ways that are highly and needlessly cruel, but the assertions that the process that is inherent to gavage period even when done properly is exceptionally cruel is unreasoned, baseless, and contradicted by relevant facts of duck physiology and the behavior of the gavaged ducks.