Brazil Made History On Animal Welfare

Brazil's Chamber of Deputies voted on to approve a bill banning the production and sale of foie gras, a luxury food product made by force-feeding ducks and geese through metal tubes inserted into their throats, a process that causes the birds' livers to swell up to ten times their natural size. The bill, which now awaits President Lula's signature, would make Brazil the first country in Latin America to ban both the production and sale of foie gras at the federal level, joining more than 20 countries that already prohibit the practice including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Argentina, and Israel. The campaign to pass the ban was led by Animal Equality over six years and gathered more than 288,000 signatures from the public, advancing the bill through the Senate, three committees in the Chamber of Deputies, and surviving a reversal of an unfavorable ruling in 2024.

The significance of the vote extends well beyond Brazil's borders. Brazil is one of the world's largest agricultural producers and exporters, and a federal animal welfare ban from a country with that level of influence in global food production carries a different weight than the same law passed in a smaller market. The president of Animal Equality called it a historic decision and said it sends a powerful message that animal suffering cannot be treated as a luxury ingredient in a country with enormous relevance to the global food system. The bill still requires presidential signature to become law, but advocates say the Chamber vote represents the decisive moment in a campaign that began in 2020, and that Lula's government has consistently signaled support for expanding animal welfare protections since taking office. If signed, the ban is expected to inspire similar legislative efforts across Latin America, where federal foie gras protections have not previously existed.

Source:https://animalequality.org/news/2026/05/06/brazils-foie-gras-ban-set-to-make-history/