DENVER Initiated Ordinance 311

Foie gras is the liver of a duck or goose that has been deliberately fattened by force-feeding, a process the industry calls ‘gavage’. For the last few weeks of the bird’s life, workers push a tube down their throat and pump in far more grain and fat than the bird would ever eat on their own. The liver swells with fat until it is many times its normal size, and that diseased organ is sold at fancy restaurants. Foie gras is French for “fatty liver.”

It ends the sale of poultry products made using force-feeding, most often used to produce foie gras, in Denver. It also makes force-feeding birds illegal here directly, even though (to our knowledge) it isn’t currently happening in Denver. The ordinance doesn’t regulate possession of force-fed products or affect what anyone cooks or eats at home. Ordinance 311 goes before Denver voters on the November 2026 ballot.

Pro-Animal Colorado, the campaign committee behind Ordinance 311, and the name of a local, volunteer-driven organization dedicated to passing laws that reflect Denver’s values of compassion and humane treatment of animals. Our funding is a mix of local donors and major grants from pro-animal funders. Nearly 100 volunteers collected signatures to put Initiative 311 on the ballot. Sign up to volunteer and help get it across the finish line in November.

Producers insert a tube into a duck or goose’s throat several times a day and pump in far more corn and oil than the bird would eat on their own. The liver swells to as much as ten times its normal size and stays that way until slaughter, a disease state called hepatic lipidosis, or fatty liver disease. Wild ducks and geese do naturally store extra fat before migration, but their livers enlarge by about 1.5 times at most. Force-feeding swells a bird’s liver to ten times that, a level of organ disease with no parallel in nature.

Yes, selling foie gras is legal in Denver today, and Ordinance 311 would change that. Force-feeding birds is legal here too, though to our knowledge no one is currently doing it in Denver. The foie gras sold here is produced elsewhere and shipped in. The measure closes both doors at once: it ends the sale of force-fed poultry products and makes force-feeding birds illegal in Denver directly.

This measure targets one specific practice, not animal farming as a whole, and it doesn’t need to solve every welfare problem in our food system to be worth passing. 85% of Denver-area respondents support ending the sale of force-fed foie gras. Force-feeding birds for foie gras is one of the worst forms of animal cruelty and is also completely unnecessary, as it is neither a staple nor a primary source of revenue for any business in Denver. Voters who learn how foie gras is produced consistently say they don’t want it sold here, regardless of how often it shows up on a menu.

No. In December 2025, fewer than 1% of Denver restaurants (approximately 25 total businesses) had foie gras on the menu, almost always as a single, seasonal menu item. Foie gras is often featured as a seasonal, luxury item, not something restaurants depend on for revenue. It is often used as a garnish.

When Colorado banned smoking in restaurants, businesses worried, then adapted without closures. Research points the other way: in a blind experiment using nearly identical menus, one featuring foie gras, one without, participants shown the menu with foie gras were 12% less likely to say they would dine at that restaurant.

Through inspections that already happen. The Denver Departments of Public Health & Environment and Excise & Licenses check for compliance during routine inspections of food service and retail establishments. The measure creates no new inspectors, no new agency, and no new licensing scheme. These are the same departments that already run Denver’s routine food safety and licensing inspections.

The measure also lets these departments accept complaints from the public.

The prohibition does not begin until July 1, 2027. Businesses have well over a year to sell through existing stock, adjust menus, and update supplier contracts before anything is enforceable, so nobody is penalized for inventory they have already bought.

No. Ordinance 311 puts no labeling, certification, registration, or recordkeeping requirement on businesses, and adds no ongoing paperwork. The burden runs the other way: the city has to establish that a violation occurred, and it can subpoena purchase records to do so.

In practice, nearly all foie gras sold in Denver comes from two U.S. producers, Hudson Valley Foie Gras and La Belle Farms. Both use force-feeding exclusively, so where a product came from is rarely ambiguous.

We love Denver’s incredible culinary scene. Our chefs are creative, adaptable, and resilient. The best thing about this initiative is that not a single business will close. Additionally, recent research has shown that 61% of Americans would be more likely to visit a restaurant if that restaurant removed foie gras from the menu for animal welfare reasons.

When Pittsburgh passed a law prohibiting the sale of foie gras in 2023, not a single restaurant went out of business. We’re talking about removing one item from a handful of menus. No restaurant depends on foie gras for survival, and most restaurants in Denver only serve it seasonally.

Denver can’t change farming laws in New York or wherever else a product comes from, but it can decide what gets sold within its own borders. For example, when our city prohibited the retail sale of puppies and kittens, the mills supplying these animals were out-of-state. While the factory farms that force-feed birds are not in Denver, we have a responsibility to cut off demand for their products here.

No. Almost all the force-fed foie gras sold in Denver comes from two industrial farms in upstate New York, not from France. The measure doesn’t touch what’s produced or eaten in France or anywhere else. It stops the sale of one product made one specific way, here.

French opinion isn’t unified behind force-feeding either: a 2024 Ifop poll found 74 percent of French respondents saying tradition doesn’t justify animal suffering, naming force-feeding by name alongside bullfighting and cockfighting.

No. Foie gras produced without force-feeding stays legal to sell. It’s very rare, but any restaurant that can find non-force-fed foie gras could theoretically serve it. The measure targets the production method, not the ingredient itself.

Ordinance 311 contains an exemption for force-feeding birds for medical purposes under the recommendation of a licensed veterinary professional. The measure is aimed at force-feeding for foie gras production specifically.

Organizers first met with members of Denver City Council about the measure before taking it directly to voters as a citizen initiative. Either way, a ballot measure puts the decision directly in front of every voter, not just a handful of elected officials.

Plenty of ballot campaigns hire paid, often out-of-state signature firms to buy their way onto the ballot. Initiative 311 was placed on the ballot without any paid circulators. A team of over 100 volunteers stood outside grocery stores, farmers markets, and at First Friday and had thousands of one-on-one conversations with their neighbors about how foie gras is produced. Qualifying a measure this way is slower and harder, but it means Initiative 311 is on the ballot because Denver residents put it there, not because a campaign wrote a check.

No. Pro-Animal Colorado is tackling this issue through a ballot measure specifically because it’s a respectful, democratic path, not disruptive protest tactics aimed at diners or restaurant staff. The goal is a policy decided by voters, not pressure campaigns against individual businesses. Further, the prohibition of foie gras should prevent future protests by preventing foie gras sales.

No. The measure only affects commercial sales within Denver. What people buy, cook, or eat privately isn’t regulated by this measure.

That is your call, and it is worth seeing both sides laid out. The case for: force-feeding causes severe, well-documented suffering; foie gras is a luxury item that no business in Denver depends on; and 85% of Denver voters already support ending its sale. The case against, as opponents put it: government should not tell restaurants what they may serve, and a measure like this sets a precedent for regulating other foods. Our answer is that Denver already decides what can be sold within its own borders, and that Ordinance 311 covers one product made one specific way, with no effect on what anyone cooks or eats at home. The questions below work through each objection in more detail.

While 85% of Denver voters support a prohibition on the sale of foie gras, there are a small minority who purchase and sell force-fed products. Even 1% of restaurants selling force-fed foie gras in every major city is enough to keep American foie gras factory farms in business. This means that the free market system is failing animals.

We are empowering the majority of voters in Denver who already abstain from purchasing foie gras to vote to end this cruel and unnecessary industry. Ordinance 311 gives voters a choice to decide where we draw the line on animal cruelty.

We’ve already decided as a society that dogfighting is illegal because it causes unnecessary suffering, despite the fact that a small minority of people do want to engage in dogfighting. Force-feeding birds until their livers become diseased falls into that same category of cruelty we don’t accept.

California, New York City, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR, and Brookline, MA have all passed laws to end the sale of force-fed poultry products, along with more than twenty countries worldwide. Denver would be joining an established, growing list.

No. For decades, the foie gras industry has spread 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.

Footage from the top supplier of foie gras to Denver restaurants reveals a group of ducks cowering in the opposite corner of the pen while one is being force-fed. The group of ducks avoid eye contact with the worker, shove each other forward, try to climb on top of one another, and one even attempts to spread his wings. 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.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras and La Belle Farms, the two biggest foie gras producers in the US, are factory farms that farm ducks for their livers. Both exclusively use force-feeding to produce their foie gras. Investigative footage from these facilities shows the same inhumane practices as foie gras factory farms in other countries.

The top U.S. supplier of foie gras, Hudson Valley, markets itself as a ‘cage-free’ facility, yet their animals live inside a factory farm with 90,000 other birds, never feeling sunlight on their back or grass beneath their feet, and are slaughtered at just 15 weeks old. When you look critically at the footage, it’s clear that ducks at Hudson Valley Foie Gras are not ‘happy’ or ‘well-cared for’, and that this company is misleading restaurant owners and the general public.

And regardless of the conditions where the animals are raised, every commercial foie gras producer’s business model relies on force-feeding animals until they develop hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease), something researchers have concluded pushes ducks to the edge of organ failure.

Pro-Animal Colorado is powered by volunteers, and there is always room for more. You can sign up to canvass, table, or help at events at Join Stampede and you can donate to the campaign at proanimalcolorado.org/donate. You can endorse by filling out this form. If you would rather help quietly, talking with your neighbors about how foie gras is produced is the single most useful thing you can do.