Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Mayor Daley signs onto repeal of foie gras ban

Mayor Daley signs onto repeal of foie gras ban please help spread the word! email him! USE YOUR VOICE!!!

Associated PressSeptember 15, 2006, 10:17 AM
CDTCHICAGO --

Just after his successful veto on the "big-box" minimum wage ordinance, Mayor Richard M. Daley is ready to bring back the foie gras. He called last month's city council ban on serving the delicacy made of goose or duck liver in restaurants "the funniest law they ever passed" and has signed onto a repeal proposal introduced by two aldermen.

Alderman Bernard Stone, who co-sponsored the proposal, said that the ban has made Chicago a laughingstock across the nation. His co-sponsor Alderman Burton Natarus, who voted in favor of the ban, said he had a change of heart after talking to more people in the restaurant industry and animal welfare activists. Foie gras is made by force-feeding geese and ducks so their livers expand up to 10 times their normal size. The city initially banned it because of concerns of animal cruelty. The council's Health Committee will vote on the issue and decide if it should be brought before the city council.

Daley has openly criticized the ban, calling it "one of the silliest, silliest decisions anyone ever made" and wondering why the council even dealt with it at all at a time when the city faces far more serious issues. But he did not veto it when it passed in April. Now, coming off a major victory when supporters of the "big-box" ordinance that would have required mega-retailers to pay higher wages could not override his veto, Daley told reporters the foie gras ban is "another we're going to take care of, too."

Doing so may not be too difficult, said the mayor's press secretary Jacqueline Heard. "My sense at this point is that there is not a lot of work needed," she said. "Even some supporters have acknowledged that, though it might have been well-intentioned, it certainly is not placing the city in a very positive light nationally." Copyright © 2006, The Associated Press


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