Initiative to ban foie gras in DC makes it onto November ballot
Voters in Washington, D.C., will decide in November whether to ban foie gras, a luxury food made from the fattened livers of ducks and geese, which critics consider abusive due to the force-feeding process. The Pro-Animal D.C. group collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, highlighting the issue as a significant animal rights cause. The initiative proposes fines up to $5,000 for violations, with possible business license suspension for repeat offenses.Opponents, including restaurant owners, argue that ducks and geese are not harmed and that there are more pressing animal rights issues. The campaign signifies ongoing debates about animal cruelty and food production practices in the city.
Voters in Washington, D.C., in November will decide whether to ban foie gras, a luxury food product.
The French delicacy is made from specially fattened livers of ducks and geese, where a tube is used to feed the birds controlled amounts of corn mash or grain several times a day. Animal activists believe the force-feeding process is abusive and have pushed to have citizens vote on whether it should be allowed in Washington.
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On Wednesday, the D.C. Board of Elections confirmed that Pro-Animal D.C.’s Prohibiting the Force-Feeding of Birds Act of 2026 has qualified for the November ballot. That means Washington could follow in the steps of California in banning the production and sale of foie gras, since proponents for Initiative 86 collected enough signatures, 5% of registered voters, to land on the ballot.
Pro-Animal D.C. said it turned in over 45,000 signatures, which the animal-rights organization touted as the second-highest total in the city’s ballot history.
“Some people ask why we’re focused on this when DC has bigger problems,” the animal rights group wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday. “We can walk and chew gum at the same time. Ending a cruel practice doesn’t take resources away from anything else, and it’s the most important issue to the hundreds of thousands of ducks trapped on foie gras factory farms.”
Restaurant owners in D.C. who serve foie gras have spoken out against the ballot initiative, disputing that ducks and geese are harmed in the production of the delicacy and arguing that there are bigger battles at hand in the broader animal rights conversation around food.
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“Commercial pigs are disgusting. Commercial chickens, too,” Bart Hutchins, the co-owner and chief at Butterworth’s on Capitol Hill, told NOTUS. “We could ban the sales of animals raised that way, or there are many ways we could be conscious of animals and the quality of our foods, but this isn’t one.”
If passed, the ballot initiative would fine restaurants and businesses that violate the law up to $5,000. Repeat or serious violations could also result in the suspension or revocation of business licenses.
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