As to what they learned from the trip, Jones offered only an official statement that the restaurant group is dedicated to researching product facilities and inspecting the treatment of animals and cleanliness, concluding, "We strongly encourage the same from anyone interested in gaining knowledge about food and its origin."

Farming or cruelty?

Olson, Holmquist and Montecot brought up the same underlying fact: All meat involves killing animals.

"It's not that I don't love ducks, but I don't understand what the cut-off point is," Olson said. "If we stop serving duck liver, should we also stop serving duck? Then what about the chicken and the beef? What about farm-raised fish? They are all harvested for consumption."

Hatfield says the critical point is that animals would be humanely raised and painlessly killed, although as a vegetarian she thinks people would be better off not eating so many animals.

"Foie gras is an especially cruel type of food, and it's so unnecessary," she said. "There are hundreds of other things people can eat."

When asked in a telephone interview about the "Delicacy of Despair" footage, Hudson Valley Foie Gras operations manager Marcus Henley said their ducks aren't caged and that they have room to move around in large, heated buildings. He said that ducks (and geese) have tough lining in their throats and esophagi, so having a tube put down their throats isn't as painful as it looks. He also said that in the wild, ducks naturally overfeed and fatten their livers for energy prior to migration, and a fatty liver isn't diseased.

"We can't attest to what goes on in other farms, but we have an open-door policy so that journalists and chefs can come and see for themselves that our animals are cared for and this isn't detrimental to animal welfare," he said. "I've worked here six years, and I've seen three or four rats in all that time. We have a rodent-control program."