Restaurant owner fined for selling foie gras

CHICAGO (AP) — A hot dog restaurateur who advertised that he was selling foie gras despite the city's ban on its sale has become the first to be cited.

A city health department inspector turned up just before Hot Doug's opened Friday, slapped owner Doug Sohn with a citation and confiscated the duck- or goose-liver delicacy.

Sohn faces a fine of from $250 to $500 when he appears at a March 29 hearing.

"I was poking the grizzly bear, and it snapped my head off," Sohn told the Chicago Tribune.

The ban was passed in August because of what animal rights activists say is the inhumane way geese and ducks are force-fed to plump up their livers. The ordinance passed over the veto of Mayor Richard Daley, who called it the "silliest" ordinance the City Council has ever passed.