Mai Mull City Hall Ban on Foie Gras

THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL MAY BE BASED ON THE BAN ON FOIE GRAS: City commissioners Carmen Rubio and Mingus Mapps expressed interest in a ban on foie gras before Portland city council in the spring, they said WW. Foie gras is made from duck or goose foie gras enlarged by force-feeding the bird, a procedure animal advocates call cruel and inhumane. “As an animal lover, I am always interested in how we can ensure the ethical treatment of animals,” says Mapps. This is the first time in nearly 13 years that the issue has heated up in this city. The last time, in 2008, three years after a bill to ban foie gras was killed in Oregon House, animal rights activists protested outside a number of high profile Portland restaurants. (The protests managed to pressure several restaurants to stop selling foie gras, while others mocked the activists.) Sarah Hanneken, lawyer for the Los Angeles-based pushing ban group Animal Equality, calls foie gras a “high-end product that is exceptionally cruel and only available to the elite classes.” Hanneken proposed an application through a complaints-based system, similar to the ban on single-use plastics. Rubio’s office says she is “open to the idea”, but currently “our staff’s bandwidth is being consumed by policies that have taken a high priority.” New York state implemented a ban on foie gras starting in 2022. California enacted a ban in 2012, but a judge ruled last year that Californians could import foie gras from other states. for their personal consumption.

CANDIDATES FOR SUCCESSFUL DEFAZIO ASSEMBLE: When U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio, the longest-serving congressman in state history, announced his retirement from Oregon’s 4th Congressional District last week, Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle immediately announced his retirement. candidacy. Also watching the race closely: State Senators Sara Gelser Blouin (D-Corvallis) and James Manning (D-Eugene), both of whom are running for re-election and are expected to relinquish their seats to run. Gelser Blouin says she weighs a number of factors, including family considerations and where she could have the most impact. Manning says many supporters have encouraged him to run for DeFazio’s seat, which he is interested in, but he has some unfinished business in Salem as well. “I’m not a person who walks away,” he says, “and there’s the old saying about a bird in the hand.” Manning hopes to make a decision within the next week. Also watching a run in the Democratic primary: Andrew Kalloch, a Harvard-trained law executive for Airbnb with a background in politics in New York City. Kalloch, who moved from Portland to Eugene last year, says he’ll make his decision during the holidays. “I plan to be a part of it,” he says.

REWARD INCREASES TO $ 36,000 FOR WOLF POISONING: The Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife on Monday raised the reward to $ 36,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for poisoning a wolf pack in eastern India. Oregon earlier this year. On December 2, ODFW reported that state soldiers in February found two dead male and three female wolves in Union County. The five wolves made up the entire Catherine pack, state officials said, and toxicology reports showed the cause of death was “consistent with poisoning.” Then, between March and July, state soldiers discovered three more dead wolves, all suspected of being poisoned as well. The ODFW says it has “exhausted the leads in the case” and needs the public’s help. As WW reported in October, poaching is a particularly complex crime to prosecute (“Things Will Die”, October 6, 2021). In 2019, the state legislature passed a pair of bills that increased criminal penalties for poachers and also provided funding for a statewide poaching prosecutor. “We are furious and dismayed,” says Sristi Kamal of Defenders of Wildlife. “Such a targeted attack on these incredible creatures is unacceptable. “

CRISTOBAL PLAYERS HAVE NOT DIPLMED: Fans at the University of Oregon still accept the sudden departure of football head coach Mario Cristobal, who fled Eugene for his hometown and alma mater, the University of Miami, this week after a second consecutive beating at the hands of the University of Utah. But UO economics professor and blogger Bill Harbaugh pointed to a statistic that university officials want to talk about even less than Utah games: the low graduation rate of the football team. Recently released NCAA numbers first reported by the News from Mercure de San José show the Ducks are tied for 10th in the Pac-12 in percentage of graduated football players in six years (73%), ahead of just UCLA (71%), which is coached by another former Duck head coach, Chip Kelly. “Cristobal’s ‘student-athletes’ just aren’t graduating,” Harbaugh tweeted.