Diners’ delicacy rankles activists

Foie gras ruffles feathers of patrons, protesters at Hurley’s

By Anne Marie Distefano

The Portland Tribune, Nov 9, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Saturday night, eight protesters stood outside the windows of Hurley’s restaurant in Northwest Portland. Some held placards with photographs of a sick duck. One faced the street with a sign that simply read, “This restaurant serves foie gras.”

Like caviar and champagne, foie gras is a luxury item. It’s served in only a few of Portland’s most upscale restaurants.

Foie gras, considered a delicacy in French culinary tradition, is made from the enlarged liver of a goose or duck. It is produced by feeding geese or ducks large amounts of food through tubes passed down their throats. Overfeeding causes their livers to swell, becoming large, fatty and Ñsome would say Ñ delicious.

Gourmets call the livers “engorged”; animal rights activists call them “diseased.”

Internationally, there recently has been concern that the procedure is cruel. Israel and several European countries have banned the practice. In October, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning both the production and sale of foie gras in the state, although the law does not go into effect until 2012.

Here in Portland, the animal rights organization In Defense of Animals has decided to take on individual restaurants, starting with Hurley’s. Connie Durkee, the organization’s Northwest regional assistant, says, “We’re not there to harass, we’re there to educate.”

Durkee earned some notoriety during a 2003 women’s World Cup soccer game when she ran naked across the field at PGE Park to protest Adidas’ use of kangaroo skin in its shoes. “In an ideal world,” she says, “all the meat would be taken off the menu.” She says the protesters plan to return to Hurley’s every weekend until foie gras is removed from the menu.

Many reservations canceled

Hurley’s chef and owner Thomas Hurley has no intention of acceding: “I don’t think it’s cruel. I think everyone has the right to speak their mind. I don’t see what the point is when they interfere with the operation of a business.”

He was particularly incensed that several people made more than 20 reservations at the small, busy restaurant and then canceled at the last minute, claiming it was because the place serves foie gras. He called the actions “malicious,” estimating that they caused him to lose about $3,000, because he turned down other requests for reservations.

On Saturday night, Hurley called the police to get the protesters to move their television, which was placed so that it faced a window of his restaurant. The screen showed a video loop titled “Delicacy of Despair,” with images of ducks in dirty metal cages being attacked by rats and being slaughtered. Police told the protesters to move the TV, which they did.

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