Scientists and vets are urging the president to afford the world’s most traded species better protections
France’s hunger for frogs’ legs is “destructive to nature” and endangering amphibians in Asia and south-east Europe, a group of scientists and vets have warned.
More than 500 experts from research, veterinary and conservation groups have called on Emmanuel Macron, the French president, to “end the overexploitation of frogs” and afford the most traded species better protections.
The EU imports the equivalent of 80-200 million frogs each year, the majority of which are consumed in France. Most come from wild populations in Indonesia, Turkey and Albania, as well as from farms in Vietnam, according to a study by Robin des Bois and Pro Wildlife, two conservation nonprofits that organised the letter.
The practice is “not at all in line” with the EU’s wildlife strategy, said Sandra Altherr, the head of science at Pro Wildlife. “It’s absurd: the natural frog populations here in Europe are protected under EU law. But the EU still tolerates the collection of millions of animals in other countries – even if this threatens the frog populations there.”
French dude here
I can’t even remember any French recipes for frog legs. The only frog legs I ever ate were in a Chinese restaurant, with bitter sweet sauce.
TBH I don’t even know a single restaurant that have frog legs on the menu, and I can’t even think of a grocery store that sells frog legs.
I eat two dozen of snails a month though. Are they endangered too?
TL,DR I call this article absolute bullshit.
It could very well be tourists coming over who eat them.
Garlic snail is fucking amazing.
This is an entirely uninformed question: would it not be easy to breed frogs for consumption like we do other animals?
It says they get the frogs from Vietnamese farms in part.
And I don’t see any evidence that the frogs are actually endangered, that sounds like a supposition.
The thing with frogs is that they’re damned good at reproduction. Of course some of them will be threatened, I’m not doubting it even though the article doesn’t present evidence. But yeah, farming shouldn’t be too hard. For many frog species at least.
My doubt in endangered frog populations comes from the lack of evidence in the article and anecdotal personal experience.
I’ve traveled to many countries in Asia in recent years, not once having seen the frog dishes crossed off the menu while other dishes frequently are has the ingredients for that dish become scarce.
I was in Cambodia recently and literally had to stop walking for a while because the path I was walking on had thousands of little baby frogs migrating somewhere.
I would need to see you some hard evidence for troubles in asian frog populations
The frogs bred for consumption are typically bull frogs or pig frogs. These are not the endangered frogs. Endangered frogs are tiny, their entire body weight is probably less than a single leg of a bull frog and its not commercially viable.
The endangered frogs are native to places like South America, where they are suffering from a loss of habitat and from chemical pesticide/herbicide run off from farms that are killing them off. In other regions they also suffer from light pollution.
I doubt its that the French are to blame, especially when east asia has a huge consumption of frog legs
??? Frogs breed super quick and aren’t that tricky to breed in captivity? I’d even go so far and say that frog meat should be rather sustainable since they eat insects which we can also breed effectively and they in turn can eat refuse from farming. I also haven’t ever seen or heard about the frog being of a particular breed or “wild caught” being part of the allure, nor seen it mentioned in a menu. This whole thing is absurd.
totally stupid : i’m french and nobody eat frogs leg : it’s just for tourist 🤫
I always assumed it was just for the tourists but apparently you guys actually do eat snails so god knows.
I assume it’s like all the disgusting British food, no one eats spotted dick or blood pudding because frankly it’s awful.
I’m surprised to hear that frogs legs were still as popular as the French stereotype.
It’s time for a campaign to make frogs legs unpopular in France, like the campaign against shark fin soup in China.
Eh, why do we need to make them unpopular? I love the taste of frog legs (also mostly know them from european made - east asian cuisine). They are bound to have a very good Feed Conversion Ratio, especially when comparing to beef cattle. If this article is spreading the truth, farming them is possible. So maybe we only need to change it up from hunting to farming.
