[Vision2020] West of Paris

[Saundra Lund]

Very well said, Megan -- thank you.

And since you've now become familiar with the strategy of some Visionaries
to hurl around empty accusations, I'm going to take this opportunity to
address a couple.

Austin Storm:  your unkind accusations on Courtney's blog were brought to my
attention.  Just to set the record straight for you -- although I've no
confidence you care about real facts -- and for Mr. Crabtree (whom I'm
genuinely disappointed in) and any others, I was absolutely sincere when I
wrote that I debated long & hard about whether to post on V2020 about West
of Paris serving foie gras.

Indeed, had West of Paris *not* been affiliated with Christ Church, there
would have been *no* debate for me:  I'd have posted the info in a New York
minute rather than debating with myself about it for a couple of days.  Had
my best friend been opening a restaurant that would be serving foie gras,
I'd have posted about it with no internal debate.  If were *anyone* other
than someone affiliated with the Kirk that was serving foie gras in a
restaurant, I'd have posted immediately.  Anyone who knows me knows this
about me -- my passion and activism for animal welfare long predates the
Kirk hierarchy running amok in Moscow.

Quite frankly, I knew the Kirk apologists would attempt to turn this into
something it's not, just as they *always* do.  Smoke & mirrors are the only
defense they can muster.

West of Paris' abhorrent choice to serve foie gras has NOTHING TO DO WITH
any perceived religious persecution.  It has to do with perpetuating the
absolutely unconscionable and wholly unnecessary mistreatment of non-human
animals.

Please, folks, let's keep the focus where it rightly belongs.


Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do
nothing.
- Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2006, Saundra Lund.
Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum
without the express written permission of the author.*****

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Megan Prusynski
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 10:24 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] West of Paris

Actually I had no idea where the restaurant was located or that it was
affiliated with NSA until AFTER I stated my objection to foie gras and my
plans to protest (I found out from Saundra's post about foie gras before I
had begun researching the restaurant). So I'm not singling anyone out for
their religious affiliations, I could really care less what church Mr.
Foucachon belongs to or if he's affiliated with NSA. And he did tell me that
he plans to look for a more humane supplier (but the production of foie gras
really can't be done humanely, because it relies on force feeding to fatten
the animals'  
livers) and that he took it off the menu until then. He did not mention to
me that he planned on putting it back on the menu, nor that he took it off
simply because he ran out of it.

As for why I don't attack every single restaurant that serves meat, well
that would be a losing battle. I'm not trying to tell people what they can
eat. I do protest at KFC because they have especially cruel practices in the
way they raise & slaughter their chickens, and they have quite a bit of
clout and presence in the industry and could make a lot of changes if they
so chose to. PETA has a campaign against KFC because they have refused to
make some very minor changes in their slaughtering process (we're asking
them to gas the chickens before they are dropped into the feather removal
tank that many go into alive, just to be sure they are dead and don't die so
painfully). I have to pick my battles here, and I try to pursue campaigns
that have the capacity to educate people and bring about real change, and
those where the suffering of the animals is the worst. I oppose ALL animal
cruelty, but use different tactics in each case. For instance, I'm not going
to force all restaurants to stop selling pork or even attempt to because I
don't think it would work, but I will happily educate anyone about a
vegetarian diet and ask restaurant owners to serve more vegetarian options.
I also freely distribute information to anyone who wants it, speak at
classes or to the press about animal cruelty issues, etc.

The reason I am particularly concerned with foie gras is that first of all
this is the first time I have ever heard of it being served in Moscow (in
the 5 years I have lived here) and second, it is a particularly cruel
practice, involving what seems to me a bit more inhumane treatment than your
average factory farm. These ducks & geese are restrained, a metal pipe is
forced down their throats, and food is stuffed into them until they contract
a liver disease (their livers swell to 6-10 times the normal size, not
exactly comfortable or healthy). Of course most farms also keep them in
tiny, cramped cages during this feeding stage, just like chickens in factory
farms, but the force feeding is what I find particularly questionable. Also,
this food is a delicacy, very expensive, and totally unnecessary for anyone
to eat it. So it's not like I'm asking for all meat to be abolished, it
would just be one small step in the right direction if foie gras was not
served.

I hope I have cleared things up a bit. Mr. Foucachon, I am NOT trying to
single you out based on any affiliations, I would campaign against foie gras
at any restaurant I found out was serving it mostly because I have a
particular aversion to this horrible practice, and it is completely
unnecessary to the success of your business anyway.

I don't appreciate accusations either, Mr. Arnold.

peace,
~megan


Message: 2
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 09:09:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] West of Paris
To: Joe Campbell <joekc at adelphia.net>, "g. crabtree"
	<jampot at adelphia.net>
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Message-ID: <20060825160915.34744.qmail at web38102.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Maybe the Newspaper and/or Megan has misunderstood what Mr. Foucachon said.
I bet that is the case.

   My question is why Megan would protest the mistreatment of birds when
pigs are mistreated and served everywhere in Moscow. Sounds to me like  they
are just making things up to protest about because the restaurant  is
connect to NSA.

   Best,

   _DJA

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