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> High Court of Justice Rejects Appeal to Continue Force-Feeding of Geese
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High Court of Justice Rejects Appeal to Continue Force-Feeding of Geese
Source:Anonymous for Animal Rights Updated: 02/23/2006
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On February 22, 2006, the High Court rejected a petition by goose farmers against its earlier ruling to ban the force-feeding of geese in Israel and accepted the appeal of animal welfare organizations to stop such force-feeding. The decision will be enforced within two months. Furthermore, the court ruled that the state and the goose farmers pay the animal rights organizations 60 million shekels for court expenses.
Israel's geese farmers appealed to the High Court of Justice to issue an injunction that would stop the state from shutting down their operations until a more humane alternative to the feeding of geese for foie gras was found. However, the High Court ruled that the appeal did not contain a persuasive argument for justifying the requested delay. It confirmed its earlier deadline for ending the force-feeding of geese by April 2006.
In August 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled, in response to a petition filed by animal rights organizations, that force-feeding of geese in Israel for the production of foie gras is a violation of Animal Welfare Law. Nevertheless, the court allowed an extension of a year and a half before the ban was to be enforced. On March 31, 2005, it rejected an additional request by the Ministry of Agriculture to extend the delay by another year and in October 2005, the Minister of Agriculture withdrew a last minute appeal to the cabinet to exempt goose feeding from the law for a three year period during which time more humane feeding methods would be developed.
In yesterday's ruling, High Court Justice Ayala Procaccia, noted: "The reality of non-compliance with a court ruling for a seven month period is a difficult reality in a state of law, when the state itself, which is responsible for preserving the authority of the law, is itself a partner in not respecting the rule of the law. This result is difficult in terms of the continued suffering caused to the fowl, which was to have been stopped in accordance with the timetable set by the court. Were it not for the alertness and the public and moral commitment of animal welfare organizations, it is possible that the incentive for making amends would not have been created." The Honored Judge went on to praise the petition of the animal rights organizations and noted that it was based on solid legal ground.
Anonymous for Animal Rights, Israel's leading animal rights organization, who was instrumental in bringing the petition against further delay in the implementation of the court ruling, lauded the court's decision as "another important landmark in the struggle for animal rights and for stopping their abuse." The organization, however, lamented the fact that the ruling came after a "year of delays in enforcing the law which saw the continued force feeding of hundreds of thousands of geese."
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