Last summer California based animal rights activists vandalized the restaurant of the only producer of foie gras in the Western United States, making the little known French "delicacy" big news. Foie gras is made by shoving large metal pipes down the throats of ducks four times a day for 3-4 weeks and pumping them full of massive quantities of food to enlarge their livers to 8-10 times their natural size. Today a California Senate panel approved a bill that would ban the production and sale of foie gras. The bill if passed will not go into effect for 7 1/2 years! Author of the bill Senator John Burton, D-San Francisco, said that supporting the bill should not be seen "in any way as validating or acquiescing to this illegal activity". Similar legislation is also pending in New York state the only other producer of foie gras in the U.S.