Controversy around the frog fair. This traditional event which is held in Vittel this weekend undermines biodiversity and causes animal suffering, denounce associations. For two days, several tons of frog legs will be tasted during this local Vosges festival, to the great displeasure of environmental protection associations which point out that they are overwhelmingly imported from Asia, decimating the local populations of batrachians.
“Just for this gathering, up to 350,000 frogs are captured, especially in Indonesia and Turkey, where frog populations are already in alarming decline”, denounced Charlotte Nithart of the French NGO Robin des Bois, in a press release. . Sandra Altherr, from the German organization Pro Wildlife, also denounces the methods of killing imported batrachians, claiming that “frogs are amputated alive on the other side of the world”.
imported frogs
“In the European Union, such plunder of biodiversity coupled with such cruel killing methods would not be allowed; the logical consequence must therefore be the cessation of imports”, plead the two associations.
Asked by AFP, Daniel Gillet, president of the Brotherhood of Taste-thighs of frogs of Vittel, defended this event “unique in France”, which attracts thousands of visitors: “This fair, it will be 50 years since it exists, it is not the first time that we eat frogs that are not French, due to the fact that there are very few farms and they do not have large productions. “If I want to eat a rabbit, a chicken or a duck, I have to go through it with the blade of a knife,” he also responded to criticism of animal abuse.