The practice of gavage at Guantanamo
Camp authorities practiced gavage at Guantanamo. Gavage is a controversial technique in animal husbandry. Liver pastes, made from the especially fattened livers of ducks and geese, is considered a delicacy in some parts of the world. However, gavage, the technique for fattening the fowls liver, is considered so inhumane it disallowed by animal cruelty laws.
Gavage in animal husbandry
Ducks and geese can e subjected to massive over-feeding because they have no gag reflex. Even when subjected to massive over-feeding they can't vomit the excess food. Animals, including humans, which choose to eat too much food, or are forced to eat too much food develop fatty livers. Their livers bloat in size. This kind of liver damage is potentially life-threatening.
Gavage at Guantanamo
In early 2006 Guantanamo camp authorities introduced the "restraint chair" to the force-feeding efforts. The chairs enabled camp staff to totally immobilize captives during -- and after -- their force-feedings. The chairs come equipped with straps to immobilize the captives' hands, feet, arms and legs. They are equipped with lap belts and shoulder belts, that immobilize the captives' torsos. Finally, there is a padded head vise, that can totally immobilize the captives' heads.
camp authorities had been force-feeding captives prior to 2006, which, for some captives, was not effective. Some captives were believed to have been inducing vomiting to limit the amount of nutrition they derived form the force feeding.
Captives reported experiencing the use of the restraint chair as both painful and humiliating. They reported that the GIs feeding them kept them restrained long after the force feeding was over -- for so long that they had no choice but to soil themselves -- which they found deeply humiliating. Some captives reported that the GIs feeding them did not remove their feeding tubes, after the first bag of nutrient solution was exhausted, but rather kept swapping in new nutrient bags, until their stomachs were very painfully distended.
In 2007, when camp authorities published height and weight records extracted from the captives' medical files. Those records confirmed that some captives were being forced to consume ten times as much nutrient as was normally consumed in a single day. Some captives gained dozens of poundes per week.
External links
- "Punishment or remedy? Guantanamo force feeding sparks debate". Hindustan Times. 2013-08-12. Archived from the original on 2013-08-12. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindustantimes.com%2Fworld-news%2FAmericas%2FPunishment-or-remedy-Guantanamo-force-feeding-sparks-debate%2FArticle1-1106892.aspx&date=2013-08-12. Retrieved 2013-08-12.
