Olivia the duck tucked her orange beak in her light gray-and-white feathers as she preened herself on the plaza of the Lincoln Memorial, overlooking the fenced-in Reflecting Pool.
“Quack, quack, quack,” the bird uttered.
Within seconds, a half-dozen passersby with phones raced to snap photos of the waterfowl that’s become the mascot for a Nov. 3 ballot measure that would ban the sale of foie gras, the French specialty made of fatty duck or goose livers, in the District.
“She’s out here trying to spread the word,” said Olivia’s owner, Meghan Abrego, 41. “And save her friends.”
Pro-Animal DC and other backers of Initiative 86 say it’s cruel to force-feed the birds, with a tube down the esophagus, to enlarge their livers before they are slaughtered.
Those who find foie gras delicious — or see no reason it should be singled out from any other meat — have said the ban would be an intrusive and absurd use of government power when there are much bigger fish to fry.
Banning foie gras is a “step to flattening all cuisine into chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers,” said Bart Hutchins, 36, the chef and co-owner of Butterworth’s, a Capitol Hill bistro. To help fund his efforts to fight a proposed ban, he’s planning a tasting menu that includes, among other duck delicacies, a foie gras Twinkie with maraschino cranberries for dessert.
The push to ban foie gras is part of a nationwide effort. New York City passed a law in 2019 that prohibits stores and restaurants from selling products from force-fed ducks and geese, but it’s been stalled due to legal opposition. A similar measure is on the ballot this fall in Denver.
The debate in D.C. has led to protests at restaurants that serve it, and demonstrators with posters of force-fed birds and a megaphone interrupted a luxury wedding at a hotel over the issue.
Through it all, no participant has garnered more attention — and strange looks — than 4½-pound Olivia, whose curled tail feathers point upward as she waddles with her orange, webbed feet at farmers markets, parks, fountains and monuments seeking supporters. Social media posts featuring Olivia — full name Olivia Gray — have helped generate thousands of followers for the cause. And like any proper celebrity, she has a YouTube channel.
One recent afternoon, Olivia strutted along the fenced perimeter of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with Abrego as she pushed the duck’s stroller-wagon, which is lined with paper for bathroom breaks.
“Is that a duck?” a middle-schooler from Ohio asked, giggling with her friends. “Don’t touch it,” a Tennessee mother warned her teens. “Does she fly away?” an elderly woman from Montana queried. “Can I hold it?” a little girl asked.
“No, she doesn’t like being petted,” Abrego answered, suggesting she instead put her hand out, palm upward. Olivia waddled over and gently pecked at the girl’s outstretched hand.
“That’s her version of a high five,” Abrego said.
Most of her admirers didn’t know what foie gras was. Olivia charmed them anyway. The duck made her way around the semicircle of onlookers and pecked a few times at the hand — and up the wrist — of a teenage girl, who squealed in delight.
“She has no arms,” Abrego explained, “so she uses her neck to give hugs.”
Nija Brown, 28, of Southeast Washington, cooed as Abrego bought a water from her snack stand and Olivia quacked nearby.
“Awww. She’s so cute,” Brown said.
Step one achieved. Then Abrego got to work.
She asked if Brown knew about the ballot measure on foie gras. She didn’t, but took a flier. Later, out of earshot of Olivia, Brown said she’d never eaten foie gras, but would like to taste it.
“I’m open to try new stuff,” Brown said. As for voting to ban it, she was undecided. She wanted to read more about how the ducks are treated before she cast her ballot.
A few minutes later, Abrego asked a family walking by if they’d heard of foie gras.
“Ack, I don’t like it!” exclaimed a 15-year-old boy eating a chocolate bar.
His mother, Marie Bois, 45, smiled politely.
“We’re French,” she said.
Abrego asked if she knew how ducks were treated in the foie gras process, continuing on with her pitch. Bois listened for a few seconds, then politely walked away.
Olivia is Abrego’s fourth pet duck. She had the others when she was younger but had to give them away because she lacked the space to keep them, or they died. About four years ago, her husband bought her a duck egg on eBay, which she hatched in an incubator at her home in Charles County, Maryland. Even though Olivia — a Swedish Blue duck — is male, Abrego’s former mother-in-law thought the name fit, and it stuck.
Now Olivia enjoys being the “queen” of the family’s dogs, cats, canaries, cockatiels and an Amazon parrot. Her best friend is the family’s pug mix, Benji. Olivia seems to consider herself 68 percent human, 30 percent dog and 2 percent duck, Abrego said.
Soon, another duck admirer appeared along their path.
“Have you heard of foie gras?” Abrego asked Jeff Lorge, 67, from Austin.
Lorge gave her a quizzical look and said he’d seen her and Olivia duck into a nearby restroom. He’d been following them ever since, along with his 92-year-old father-in-law, Clyde Thomas, who uses a wheelchair.
“We’ve been trying to catch up to them for 20 minutes. They’re fast,” Lorge said.
He listened to Abrego’s spiel and posed the nonagenarian — who’s a Korean War veteran — next to Olivia for a photo. The two had come to D.C. to see the monuments, and now found themselves inside the city’s tussle over the ethics of a menu item.
“It’s probably not good for the ducks,” Lorge said. “If you’re going to hunt them, then do that, but don’t force-feed them like that.”
Growing up in New Orleans, Abrego — who’s also a trained emergency medical technician — said she is a French Cajun who saw plenty of foie gras served in local restaurants but never partook. She’s not against harvesting animals but said force-feeding birds with a tube is just wrong.
The pair became volunteers for Pro-Animal DC and have put in about 30 hours a week since the spring on the effort. She showed Olivia a video on YouTube of how the ducks are fed.
“She didn’t like it,” Abrego said. “She was looking at it for a minute and then walked away.”
Why show a pet duck?
Abrego “wanted her to understand what we’re fighting for,” she said.
Some critics have slammed the initiative as sloppily written, with the editorial director of a D.C. think tank raising concerns on social media that it would “ban Jewish delis from selling chopped chicken liver.”
The summary of the measure on the D.C. ballot defines force-feeding as “inserting a tube into the bird’s throat to deliver excessive feed.”
But the full legislative text of the measure prohibits selling or providing “any fattened bird liver product within the District of Columbia,” which it defines as “any food product or by-product made from the livers of birds fattened through any method or practice, including foie gras, pâtés, spreads, and processed meat products derived from such livers.”
The D.C. Council could still amend Initiative 86 — if it gets voter approval on Nov. 3, by proposing new legislation — which would require it going through the full legislative process, according to city legal experts.
Natalie Fulton, the media and content lead for Pro-Animal DC, said critics are misinterpreting the initiative.
“No one’s trying to ban chicken. This is specifically talking about forced-feeding of birds to intentionally give them fatty liver disease,” Fulton said, adding that the City Council would be able to make the wording clearer if it wanted to. “Jewish delis don’t have to worry. It realistically wouldn’t end up that way. That’s not the intention of this ban.”
Hutchins, the chef at Butterworth’s, has been among the most outspoken restaurateurs defending the delicacy. Most chefs don’t want the bad publicity or to be targeted by protesters, he said. But he said he’s in the “all press is good press” school.
“If they hate me for it,” he said in an interview at his restaurant, which has a reputation as a conservative hangout, “they hate me for it.”
Hutchins buys about 300 pounds of foie gras a year from two suppliers in New York. He said he’s seen one of the suppliers force-feed the ducks by hand. It lasts for about 1½ seconds and happens three times a day for the final three weeks of their lives, he said.
“The idea that it’s any more harmful to them than any other animal husbandry is silly,” Hutchins said.
He extended a standing offer to Abrego to visit his restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, where neighborhood diners also enjoy bone marrow and oysters brûlée.
A few weeks ago, Abrego and Olivia walked in to Butterworth’s, which normally has a strict no animals policy. Abrego had the fries and a glass of prosecco. Olivia munched on roasted tomatoes.
Abrego said she wasn’t afraid to “walk into the lion’s den,” and that they enjoyed themselves.
“It felt like a cordial, friendly gesture at a time when politics can be disgusting and contentious,” Hutchins said, adding that Abrego “seems reasonable.”
“I think they’re earnest people who are wrong,” he said.
If passed, the foie gras ban would take effect July 1, 2027, and fines would range from $1,000 to $5,000 for a violation. The city’s chief financial officer said it would cost roughly $314,000 over four years to educate businesses and the public and cover the cost of an inspector to oversee the ban.
Abrego said she’s received some criticism from people who say there are other important issues — including homelessness and protecting veterans’ benefits — that are more worthy of being on a ballot initiative.
But “nobody’s stopping anyone from starting their own campaign,” she said. “This one is for the ducks.”
The post Meet Olivia, the duck quacking to keep foie gras off D.C. menus appeared first on Washington Post.
