Hold the presses: I agree with Mayor Daley the foie gras ban is "silly"

Mayor Daley urged the City Council Tuesday to come to its senses and repeal a foie gras ban that has made Chicago an international laughingstock in restaurant circles.

“Why would they pick this and not anything else? How about veal? How about chicken? How about steak — beef?…Where do you begin and where do you end? People say veal is basically cruelty to animals. I mean — you could go on and on,” Daley said.

“They have to re-evaluate this….They should come together and figure out what they’ve done and realize that it’s a silly law….It’s the silliest law they’ve ever passed. They have a lot of silly laws passed there, but this thing is [ridiculous]…If there’s five or six restaurants [that sell foie gras] and we think that’s the highest priority in city government, they’ve lost sight of what priorities are about.”

If aldermen don’t have a change of heart, Chicago restaurants and grocers that continue to sell foie gras apparently have no reason to fear hefty fines or possible loss of city licenses. Daley said he’s not about to direct city health inspectors to rush out and enforce the ban that takes effect today.

“We have other real issues confronting the people of Chicago,” he said.

The mayor also cast doubt on how vigorously city attorneys would defend the ordinance against a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Illinois Restaurant Association and a group known as “Chicago Chefs for Choice.”

“When you pass laws that are silly, it costs taxpayers money. [Aldermen are saying], ‘I don’t care if it’s unconstitutional. Let’s pass it.’ If that’s the way government keeps working, then it costs taxpayers more and more money,” he said.

“Restaurants are a great industry….All the sudden, you can question anything you serve in a restaurant — the poor snails and the mussels and the shrimp, the lobsters. You can go on and on.” . . . .