AUGUSTA (AP) – A bill to make it a civil violation in Maine to force feed birds to produce a delicacy called foie gras has been killed by a legislative committee.

Maine has no facility that produces foie gras, but some restaurants serve the product.

Maine restaurant owners and chefs opposed the bill as anti-business, saying it gives a product they sometimes serve a bad name. Others said they have visited a foie gras farm in New York and the birds were treated humanely.

Sponsors sought to convince the Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee that foie gras, or fatty liver, is produced by inhumanely force-feeding ducks and geese. They said the process damages the birds’ livers and abdomens and can be painful.