# How does one go about force-feeding a goose?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-go-about-force-feeding-a-goose/112369>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 4, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-go-about-force-feeding-a-goose/112369 "2002-06-04T20:57:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![domesticatedjunglefowl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b38774/32.png) [@domesticatedjunglefowl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/domesticatedjunglefowl)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-go-about-force-feeding-a-goose/112369/1 "2002-06-04T20:57:04Z")

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How does one go about force-feeding a goose?

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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [June 4, 2002, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-go-about-force-feeding-a-goose/112369/2 "2002-06-04T21:11:45Z")

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OK, I must warn you that the link I am about to provide is extremely slanted toward an animal rights point of view; however, it is one of the only actual descriptions of force feeding that I could find on the Web. (Most foie gras sites just have recipes, or say “foie gras is made by force feeding a goose”… well, we know that, but HOW?)

[http://www.eatveg.com/animals/liverfat.htm](http://www.eatveg.com/animals/liverfat.htm)

Relevant quote (the author chose to write this as a first-person account, apparently for X-tra emotional impact):

> [@](#):
>
> Three times a day, humans entered the small duck pens where we were imprisoned inside the factory-farm building. Us ducks, knowing what was coming, struggled to get as far away from the men as possible. The humans grabbed us one at a time, held us down, forced open our bills, and shoved a long metal pipe down our throats all the way to our stomachs and believe me, it ain’t no party! They then squeezed a lever attached to the pipe, and an air-driven pump forced a third of the day’s six-to-seven pounds of corn mixture into each our stomachs.

I would venture to say that whether you are an animal rights activist or not, this process is probably not very pretty to watch. What I want to know is, how did someone discover that cramming mass amounts of food down a goose’s throat until its liver swells up to four times its original size, causes the liver to become extra tasty? (Or at least so I hear; personally I have never had foie gras, nor most likely will I, after looking at that website. Jeez.)