NEW FOOTAGE CAPTURED AT HUDSON VALLEY REVEALS DUCKS FORCE-FED With METAL TUBES, Covered IN THEIR OWN WASTE
On February 19th, 2026, we sent a photojournalist to investigate Hudson Valley Foie Gras in New York, the largest foie gras factory farm in the country and the #1 supplier to U.S. restaurants and retailers.
A note before we begin: this footage was captured during a public tour of an American foie gras farm. That means what you’re about to see represents the absolute best conditions the farm was were willing to put on display. While there is no blood or gore in this video, the force-feeding process can be difficult to watch. Click here to view a gallery of full-sized photographs and video.
What the investigation found:
- Workers using thick, foot-long metal tubes to force-feed animals
- Birds being yanked by their necks and wings to position them for force-feeding
- Birds living on plastic grates coated in feces and urine, with visibly soiled feathers and inflamed, discharge-coated eyes
- Ducks attempting to vocalize while their beaks were forcibly held open
- Ducks seen crowding into the corners of their pens, climbing over each other, and spreading their wings in an apparent attempt to avoid the feeding tube
- Birds living in crowded, artificially lit barns, unable to bathe themselves or submerge their heads due to lack of access to water
Hudson Valley Foie Gras has operated in Ferndale, NY since 1990. A federally classified Large Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO)*, it is the largest of two farms responsible for producing virtually all of the foie gras sold in the U.S. Unlike most factory farms, the producer actively invites the public to tour its operation, a strategy its own management has described as a deliberate choice to project transparency. Our photojournalist visited on February 19th, 2026, on one of the ‘white glove’ tours.
New Footage Reveals Shocking Animal Cruelty at The Largest U.S. Foie Gras Supplier
In the force-feeding barn, the images reveal 10 to 12 ducks living in small 4’ x 6’ pens, forced to stand on plastic grates coated in accumulated feces and urine. There is no bedding or rest area in the pens. The feathers of every bird appear visibly wet, brown, and soiled. Their eyes appear inflamed and leaking discharge, symptoms consistent with crusty eye, a condition that affects nearly half of all ducks raised without access to bathing water deep enough to submerge their heads. Ducks are a semi-aquatic species that depend on water to keep their eyes and nostrils clear.
Hudson Valley’s Farm Manager has claimed that their ducks “show no signs of discomfort before, during and after the feeding process,” but this footage shows otherwise. In one clip, a worker is seen grabbing a duck by the wing and dragging him across the pen to position him for feeding. While immobilized, ducks are seen moving their tongues, attempting to vocalize in distress. The workers then hold the ducks beaks open and insert a thick, metal tube directly into the esophagus. A pump driven by compressed air forces feed into the bird in a matter of three to four seconds. According to a leading meat industry newspaper, workers using this mechanized pump system are each responsible for feeding 450 birds per hour. The volume of food forced into each bird is visible on camera: their crop (a muscular, expandable pouch in the esophagus) swells visibly, like a balloon being filled with water.
Our footage reveals a group of ducks cowering in the opposite corner of the pen while one of them is being force-fed. They avoid eye contact with the worker, shove each other forward, try to climb on top of one another, and one even attempts to spread their wings. It’s obvious that the birds are clearly trying to get as far from the worker and feeding tube as possible. According to a peer-reviewed study from Cambridge University, this behavior is clear evidence that the ducks see force-feeding as something to be avoided.
What Hudson Valley Doesn’t Want You to See
Approximately 10,000 ducklings arrive at Hudson Valley every week. They spend their first four weeks in a nursery barn, then eight weeks in a growing barn before being moved into the force-feeding pens. After three weeks of three force-feedings a day, the ducks are killed and their diseased livers are sold as foie gras. Hudson Valley markets itself as a cage-free facility, but this is the reality: their ducks live inside a factory farm with 90 thousand other birds, never feeling sunlight on their back or grass beneath their feet, and are slaughtered at just 15 weeks old.
For decades, the foie gras industry has perpetuated propaganda falsely claiming that the ducks ‘line up to be force-fed’, citing old videos like this as evidence. The latest footage confirms what has already been clearly documented: this myth has never been true. What is actually happening is the workers are using wooden sorting panels (known as ‘crowd-gates’) to trap several ducks near them so that they are easier to grab, giving the false appearance that the birds are ‘lining up to be fed’.
In a 2021 piece from Business Insider, Hudson Valley Foie Gras’ Farm Manager made the following statement: “We’re not harming them. We’re making them happy by feeding them.” On their website, the company claims that they ‘provide the best possible care for their animals’.
But thanks to the ‘white glove’ tours the company offers, it’s no secret that their ducks are not ‘happy’ and ‘well-cared for’, and that the farm is misleading restaurant owners and the general public. Regardless of housing conditions, commercial foie gras production is designed to induce hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) in birds, in which the liver swells over 6 times its normal size, something researchers have concluded pushes ducks to the edge of organ failure.
Hudson Valley Foie Gras – Video Archive
We compiled a collection of videos filmed at Hudson Valley Foie Gras. Other than slight variations in feeding tube technology, it’s clear that not much has changed over the years.
The Inevitable Downfall of Force-Fed Foie Gras
While some restaurant owners and chefs still believe Hudson Valley’s marketing rhetoric, most Americans aren’t falling for it. In a recent study, a sample of 5,665 Americans (weighted to match U.S. census demographics) were asked whether they believe that “Foie gras is typically produced in a humane way”. Only 9.48% agreed with the statement (Table 3). The participants did not receive any information prior to answering the question.
The same study found that 89% of U.S. adults support banning the practice of force feeding ducks and geese, and 87% support banning the sale of foie gras produced through force feeding. The sale of force-fed products is already prohibited in the State of California, New York City, Pittsburgh, and Brookline, MA, and force-feeding has been outlawed in 20 countries. It’s only a matter of time before more voters and elected officials take action, forcing factory farms like Hudson Valley to leave cruel force-feeding behind.
*We estimate Hudson Valley has at least 90,000 ducks on site at any given time by multiplying the weekly slaughter rate (6,000 fatty livers produced) by the length of a foie gras duck’s life on the farm (15 weeks).