{"id":108952,"date":"2023-04-17T10:39:31","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T09:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/?p=108952"},"modified":"2024-01-09T15:09:11","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T14:09:11","slug":"foire-aux-grenouilles-a-vittel-fast-food-fast-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/foire-aux-grenouilles-a-vittel-fast-food-fast-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"”Frog Fair” in Vittel: Fast Food, Fast Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Biodiversity damage and animal suffering on the menu of the largest frogs\u2019 legs meal in the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paris \/ Munich \/ April 17, 2023 \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>During the “Frog Fair” in Vittel in the Vosges region of France, which will take place this year on 22 and 23 April, about seven tonnes of frog legs are consumed in just two days by some 20,000 visitors. “For this event alone, up to 350,000 frogs are caught, especially in Indonesia and Turkey, where frog populations are already in alarming decline,” reports Charlotte Nithart of the French organisation Robin des Bois. And Dr Sandra Altherr from the German organisation Pro Wildlife adds: “Do the visitors know that for their snacks, frogs are amputated alive on the other side of the world?”<\/p>\n

This fair, which claims to be a celebration of French gastronomy, is in fact a trade fair, where frogs are a cheap mass-commodity mostly imported from Asia. The “Frog Fair” will be officially opened by a parade of the “Confr\u00e9rie des Tastes-cuisses de Grenouilles de Vittel” (“Brotherhood of the Frog Legs-Tasting of Vittel”), which admits on its website: “Whatever its origin, the frog leg has no taste in itself. It’s all in the seasoning”.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora<\/em>) will be one of the guest stars at Vittel.
\n\u00a9 Ganjar Cahyadi<\/p>\n

France is the biggest consumer of frogs’ legs<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to a study by Pro Wildlife and Robin des Bois, the European Union imports an average of 4070 tonnes of frogs’ legs each year – the equivalent of 80 to 200 million frogs, depending on their size.<\/p>\n

“Our analysis showed that France imports a total of more than 3000 tonnes annually \u2013 80% of which comes from Indonesia, 13% from Vietnam, 3.4% from Turkey and just under 1% from Albania,” Nithart reports. “European rules concerning consumer information on the species sold and the country of origin are often flouted.”<\/p>\n

“It’s absurd: the frogs that occur in nature here in Europe are protected under EU law. But the EU still tolerates the collection of millions of animals in other countries \u2013 even if this threatens the frog populations there. This is not at all in line with the EU\u2019s recent biodiversity strategy.” criticises Altherr.<\/p>\n

Demand in Europe causes deadly domino effect<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1960s to 1980s, India and Bangladesh were the EU\u2019s suppliers of frog legs. But frog populations collapsed in these countries, leading to mosquito plagues, pest damage to crops and increased pesticide use. Both countries pulled the emergency brake at the end of the 1980s with an export ban.<\/p>\n

Since then, Indonesia has taken over the role of the most important supplier: Three-quarters of the frogs’ legs currently imported by the EU come from Indonesia, where the frogs are still captured in the wild. Populations of the larger species are being decimated one by one. The species once frequently traded because of its large legs, the Java frog (Limnonectes macrodon<\/em>), has already disappeared from the trade years ago.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Turkish researchers sounded the alarm that larger frog species could already be extinct in their country by 2030 if hunting for the frog leg market continues at current levels. In Albania, too, the first frog species are already under threat, too.<\/p>\n

Pro Wildlife and Robin des Bois call for a stop to EU imports: “In the EU, such a nature looting coupled with such cruel killing methods would not be allowed, so the logical consequence must be to stop imports.”<\/p>\n

Further information:<\/strong>
\nReport “Deadly Dish – role and responsibility of the European Union in the international frogs’ legs trade” (June 2022, pdf, English): https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/FROGS-LEGS-report-16-June-2022.pdf<\/a>
\nEU responsible for extinction domino effect on frog populations (press release on the report, June 2022, English):\u00a0https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/lunion-europeenne-responsable-de-lextinction-en-cascade-des-populations-de-grenouilles\/<\/a>\u00a0(or Pro Wildlife website)
\nBackground to the “Frog Festival” in Vittel (in German):\u00a0https:\/\/www.prowildlife.de\/aktuelles\/kommentar\/froschschenkel-statt-currywurst\/<\/a>
\nStudy from Turkey (2020):\u00a0https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/oryx\/article\/unsustainable-harvest-of-water-frogs-in-southern-turkey-for-the-european-market\/5DCFB7A02E81FE030C2A7198FDBE74A9<\/a><\/p>\n

About Pro Wildlife<\/strong>
\nPro Wildlife is a non-profit organisation working to protect wildlife and their habitats worldwide. Our goal is to preserve biodiversity and save animals. In doing so, we care about the survival of species in their habitats, but also about the protection of individual animals. We campaign for better laws and effective protection measures for wildlife. In various countries, we support aid projects for animals in need, help to preserve habitats and advocate for the coexistence of humans and wildlife.<\/em><\/p>\n

About Robin des Bois<\/strong>
\nRobin des Bois is a non-profit NGO founded in 1985. It\u2019s objective is the protection of Man and the Environment through all means of non-violent actions. Robin des Bois carries out field investigations and regularly participates in a dozen institutional consultation groups and international conventions. Since 1988, it was granted observer status at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Since 2013, Robin des Bois has published an information and analysis bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling (\u201cA la Trace\u201d in French, \u201cOn the Trail\u201d in English), a useful tool for institutions and NGOs fighting wildlife crime around the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Only in French.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pillage-et-commerce"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109598,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108952\/revisions\/109598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robindesbois.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}