Environmentalist anger in France for a fair to taste frog legs: “It’s cruel, they bring 350,000 amputated amphibians”

a fair of frog legs tasting taking place in Vittel, a city in eastern France this weekend, has provoked the ire of environmental associationswho denounce an attack on biodiversity.

The frog fair is held every year in Vittel and includes the tasting of frog legs, animations and parades.

“Just for this meeting up to 350,000 frogs have been caught, mainly in Indonesia and Türkiyewhere frog populations are already in alarming decline,” said Charlotte Nithart of the French NGO Robin des Bois in a statement.

Sandra Altherr of the German organization Pro Wildlife also denounces the methods used to import the frogs. Amphibians, watch out, “they’re living amputees on the other side of the world.”

“In the European Union, such a plundering of biodiversity together with such cruel slaughter methods would not be allowed; the logical consequence must therefore be the cessation of importssupport the two associations.

“80% of the frogs consumed in France come from Indonesia and to a lesser extent from Vietnam or Turkey. The slaughter conditions are also very cruel. Few people know that these 350,000 animals are living amputees, with scissors, on the other side of the world”, explains Charlotte Nithart, spokeswoman for the Robin des Bois association.

According to the France3 portal, France is the largest consumer of frog legs in the world. The European Union imports more than 4,000 tonnes of frogs’ legs each year, or 80 to 200 million frogsaccording to their size, according to a study by Pro Wildlife and Robin des Bois.

Thus, France consumes three quarters of it, with more than 3,000 tons imported annually. The largest frog leg meal on the planet also takes place in the Vosges town of Vittel during the frog fair.

Daniel Gillet, president of a brotherhood in Vittel, told AFP that it was a “unique in France” event, attracting thousands of visitors.

“This fair has been held for 50 years, and it is not the first time that we have eaten non-French frogs, because there are very few farms and they do not have large productions,” said the president of ‘Taste-cuisses ‘.

“If I want to eat a rabbit, a chicken or a duck, I have to knife it,” she said, in response to criticism of animal abuse.

The frog, a protected animal in Europe

Frogs found in Europe in the wild are protected under European law, but it continues to allow “cultivated” frogs.

For decades, India and Bangladesh have been the main suppliers of frogs to the European Union. However, in the late 1980s, these two countries took emergency measures to ban these exports, reports France3,

“Frog populations have declined so much in India and Bangladesh that the consequences for the environment have been dire. There have been mosquito invasions, crops destroyed by parasites and therefore an increase in the use of pesticides,” explains Charlotte Nithart, spokeswoman for the Robin des Bois association.

Source: AFP