community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Voices for Animal Liberation keeps pressure on Lucca
by Danny P
Saturday, May. 15, 2004 at 8:56 PM
dannyp@indypgh.org
Voices for Animal Liberation activists picket outside of Lucca in Oakland on Saturday, March 15th.
Voices for Animal Liberation is continuing to put pressure on Lucca to have them stop selling Fois Gras. The tactic has worked in other places, but Lucca is showing resistance. This comes just a week after property was damage outside of Lucca, a move some observers believe was an attempt to frame Voices for Animal Liberation activists.
Saturday night's picket was scheduled to last two hours. Lucca seemed to be rather crowded on this Saturday evening, perhaps due to nice weather and nearby Carnegie Mellon University gearing for commencement.
Business was busy
by Danny P
Saturday, May. 15, 2004 at 8:56 PM
dannyp@indypgh.org
Just say no to Fois Gras
by Danny P
Saturday, May. 15, 2004 at 8:56 PM
dannyp@indypgh.org
Most of the destruction that had happened at Lucca's had been cleaned up, but this statue remained. It was tagged "VAL," short for Voices for Animal Liberation. Many people are questioning whether the property destruction was actually done by anyone affiliated with VAL.
Stop Selling Foie Gras!
by Michael Croland
Sunday, May. 16, 2004 at 7:45 AM
Foie gras is the grotesquely oversized, diseased liver of a duck or goose. Foie gras farmers force-feed the animals one-third of their body-weight each day, by painfully shoving long metal pipes down their throats. This causes the animals' livers to grow to about 10 times their healthy size, resulting in an illness called hepatic lipidosis.
Make no mistake about it – the alleged delicacy that Lucca serves to customers is a medical disease. Foie gras ducks suffer pre-slaughter deaths 20 times as often as the animals on other duck farms. Foie gras production is already banned in England, Israel, and a dozen other nations.
Several Pittsburgh restaurants, including Baum Vivant and The Carlton, have recently pledged to never again sell foie gras. Lucca should follow that lead and remove cruelty and disease from their menu.
More insurance fraud?
by Investigator
Monday, May. 17, 2004 at 3:22 AM
Quit breaking your own windows and vandalizing your own establisment and blaming (however feeble) liberal student groups, who definitely aren't brick-throwers.
I guess it's different when it's your irrevocable trust, but for once, I'm rooting for the insurance companies.
It was hillarious to watch you incriminate yourself on the local news.
right
by feeble
Wednesday, May. 19, 2004 at 1:22 PM
Investigator's right.
Why would any group spray a statue with its own name and then deny responsibility? duh. looks like it brought citywide publicity for the restaurant too. hmmm.
a lot of questions indeed as to who did this.
mmmmm
by George K.
Thursday, May. 20, 2004 at 10:00 AM
vine_swinger_chuckie@yahoo.com
Such creamy delicacy, that pate...
Generally, humans are carnivores. It is a persons CHOICE of what they eat. If people want to go to the restaurant and eat this food, it is their right. Your small group has no say so whatsoever.
Because of the expense in raising the bird in question, this particular menu item will remain expensive and, therefore, not a general menu item. Why doesn't your group protest something more pervasive, like the food additives (i.e. trans-fats) that contribute to the general poor health of the nation?
Hmm?
Or do you believe that two or three birds are worth more than a hundred million people?
Re: mmmmm
by Fact Guy in a Little Coat
Thursday, May. 20, 2004 at 12:57 PM
You seem to have neglected the very first sentence on the front-page of this group's web site (pghfoiegras.com).
"Nearly 500,000 ducks and geese are killed each year in the United States to produce the delicacy foie gras."
Down with transfats n'at, but I don't know where you got your two-or-three stat from.
All the best,
FGiaLC
quick fact check
by duckman
Thursday, May. 20, 2004 at 1:02 PM
I disagree with that two-or-three statistic. The very first sentence on the frontpage of pghfoiegras.com reads:
Nearly 500,000 ducks and geese are killed each year in the United States to produce the delicacy foie gras.
geese, ducks, dogs, people
by feebel
Friday, May. 21, 2004 at 5:43 PM
George: if its a person's choice what they eat, I guess you won't mind then if your neighbor slowly tortures your dog to death and then eats it? I heard dog's like the foie gras of some Asian countries.
Your values are a little inconsistent it seems to me and your smug logic not so well thought out.
Oh and the very fact that you've even been drawn into this conversation is proof that their campaign is getting somewhere.
vandals
by jonah
Friday, May. 21, 2004 at 10:13 PM
That's all I see in those images. Protect ducks, but deface property. such morality.
...
by ...
Saturday, May. 22, 2004 at 9:14 AM
"Protect ducks, but deface property. such morality."
are you serious, umm ya, I'm not involved in this campaign but that would square pretty well with my morality, I think I'll choose people and animals over "property" every time. I hope you would as well.
As far as the well all I see is vandals statement, I guess by that logic everytime anyone sees the owner of Lucas they should see a killer then.
people and animals over "property"
by jonah
Saturday, May. 22, 2004 at 10:42 AM
You're a liar.
Give me your car. Give me your Playstation. Give me the deed to your house.
Prove to me that you're so evolved beyond us mere mortals, that you've shed your physical territorial body.
You're nothing but a goddamned liar, a dime store Leftist who talks and yet nothing but poop rolls from the tongue.
...
by ...
Saturday, May. 22, 2004 at 11:33 AM
I'm vegan, I don't own a car, I don't own a house, I don't own a playstation and all of that is irrevelant to the point of your post.
I LIKE MICK
by The Jaggers
Saturday, May. 22, 2004 at 1:44 PM
If Mick Jagger can suck a duck ...then we all can eat foie gras.
life.
by ALF
Sunday, May. 23, 2004 at 9:12 AM
"That's all I see in those images. Protect ducks, but deface property. such morality."
yes. "property", if there is such a thing, doesn't feel pain.
stupid vandal
by meat eater
Sunday, May. 23, 2004 at 2:58 PM
As far as "property" is concerned, animals are territorial as well as humans. By your rationale you're protecting my kind more than yours.
insurance?
by whatever
Sunday, Jun. 20, 2004 at 7:16 PM
grow up, do you have any idea the deductable on an insurance policy.....and what one do you know of that covers graffiti
two or three is right
by livers produce many portions
Sunday, Jun. 20, 2004 at 7:21 PM
i get about thirteen to sixteen orders (portions) out of one liver of foie gras, that means that if i sell thirty orders in a week.....do the math......and i don't think anyone sells anywhere near that much foie....except maybe lucca now
gay bashers
by ben bloom
Monday, Mar. 14, 2005 at 7:39 AM
i was with some friends that work at the lucca and candice and peter (voices for animal liberation) used the words fag and faggot to address me and my two friends as they passed by the restaurant late one evening. VAL- you people need to really step back and look at yourselves. you make me sick.
Responding to "gay basher animal rights" comment
by PJ (that's Peter to you)
Friday, Mar. 18, 2005 at 7:29 AM
Once I got finished laughing about being a gay basher, I decided to respond to this ridiculous comment.
Lets review: On more then one ocassion VFA activists were referred to as "faggots" by one of the wait staff at Lucca's while protesting (I'm assuming this is the one heterosexual employee who works there). Furthermore, VFA is a queer-friendly organization. Our Statement of purpose even makes mention of sexuality and gender in it: "We envision a society where animals are viewed as respected members of our communities, rather then being seen as mere human-owned commodities. Our goal is to educate the Western Pennsylvania community about issues affecting animals and encourage ethical and sustainable lifestyle choices that reflect an underlying ethic of compassion and respect for all sentient beings - regardless of race, class, sexual orientation, gender, age or species."
Furthermore, there are several main organizers in VFA who are bisexual or gay. While it is convenient to make crys of homophobia or property destruction to take attention away from the real issues - the horrific treatment and agonizing deaths experienced by animals in modern agriculture - it is unfounded. VFA didn't destroy property at Lucca ever and we're not homophobes. However, even if someone who believed in our cause did so, we understand the anger and sadness that would lead someone to do such an action in the face of enormous and unrecognized animal suffering, exploitation, and unnecessary killing. We don't degrade or disagree with the Stonewall Rioters who, in 1969, fought against the police at a NYC Gay Bar by breaking windows and causing a ruckus in an effort to fight for queer dignity - and we certainly won't sit back quietly and listen to people who have lost or never had their sense of solidarity with other marginalized, vulnerable or abused groups (animals included) use claims (lies) of homophobic comments to muddy the waters so the victimizers (resturants who sale gourmet cruelty) can look like victims.
And for the record, I kiss boys.
about false postings
by Rebecca R.
Friday, Mar. 18, 2005 at 8:39 AM
Indy Media editorial people: should posts that make false accusations about individuals/groups be allowed to remain on the comments page? I'm referring to the post by "ben bloom" (is that really "bb" or is it "jj" "ben"?) which seems to correspond AT LEAST to the following items of Indy Media policy for hiding posts:
- "contain information that is not true and could cause confusion about an event"
- are "garbage".
Especially that second item...
that is a factual statement
by Jason
Sunday, Apr. 17, 2005 at 9:29 AM
There were seven people on the "patio" that evening.
I ABSOLUTLY did happen,
Jason is a cub
by ducky
Saturday, May. 21, 2005 at 12:36 PM
I was there and the duck haters are super gay!!! and really have it in for the poor ducks eating liver after liveroh my god!!!
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