Wed Dec 22,12:13 PM ET
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Top Stories - AFP |
Posted on 12/22/2004 4:34:43 PM PST by BJClinton
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Wed Dec 22,12:13 PM ET
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PRAGUE (AFP) - As large round fish tanks crop up along the pavements of the Czech Republic this week animal campaigners are calling for an end to the Christmas traditional practice of slaughtering millions of carp in public.
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For Czechs no Christmas is complete without the traditional meal of fried carp and potato salad.
And while some buy a fish live and keep it in their bath for several days before Christmas, for most that means choosing a particular fish from a tank set up on almost every street corner and having the animal beheaded on the spot before taking it home.
"It is paradoxical that Christmas, generally considered a holiday of love and peace, has unfolded as a sign of the massacre of animals," said Petr Schmied, campaigner with the Animals Freedom association.
"Every year around two million carps aged three or four years old are killed at this time. In nature they could hope to live around 20 or 30 years," he added.
But for the huge majority of Czechs - 88 percent according to a recent poll - there is no question of renouncing fried carp with the compulsory potato salad.
"The late Christmas supper without carp or fish soup is unimaginable for me," said Rudolf Hrusinsky, Czech comedian and passionate fisherman.
"My habit is to also eat carp on the following morning cold from the fridge with horse-radish and lemon," he added, licking his lips.
One week before Christmas, in Prague as in other towns, hundreds of large tanks packed full of carp appear on the streets.
Customers choose a particular fish, the seller snatches it out of the water and with a large knife swiftly beheads it.
"And all that happens in front of the eyes of children. But that does not embarrass their parents," said Petr Schmied, who denounces the suffering inflicted on carp.
But Josef Mares, manager of the largest Czech fish breeding farm Rybarstvi Trebon, defends the tradition.
"I don't think that this is stressful for the fish. There are rules that we have to respect during the sale in the street, for example there must be one litre of water for each kilogramme of carp in the containers," he said.
"I strongly believe that the tradition of carp at Christmas will be conserved in future," added Mares, whose company is one of the largest employers in the south Bohemia region in the south of the country.
But over the last few days campaigners from Animal Freedom, armed with posters, often mingle with customers to try to debate the custom which transforms the streets into public abattoirs for fish.
The campaigners want to remind Czechs of an older vegetarian tradition.
"The tradition of having carp at Christmas only dates back to the 19th century. Previously, people ate mostly mushroom kuba, a dish prepared with dried mushrooms and hulled barley, and sour soup," said Schmied.
For Josef Duben, spokesman for the State Veterinary Administration, it is important to differentiate between "true animal protectors" and those who want to convert the world to vegetarianism or to vegetalism.
"By nature man is an omnivore," said Duben. "It is difficult even impossible to argue on this subject with those who make a religion out of eating habits," he said.
Schmied admits that his initiative has had only very small palpable results so far.
"But we don't think that people will stop eating carp and meat in general from one day to the other, after a demonstration or event. But we are far from throwing in the towel. It could take years, even dozens of years," he said determinedly.
The animal rights zealots are a disturbance to the peace in general. I loathe them.
"The tradition of having carp at Christmas only dates back to the 19th century. Previously, people ate mostly mushroom kuba, a dish prepared with dried mushrooms and hulled barley, and sour soup," said Schmied.
This is what these fools want, they want us all to live life as it was lived 100, 200, 500, 1000 years ago. I'm sure they'd feel right at home in taliban ruled afghanistan. Let's party like its 52 BC.
Morons, I'm quite sure they don't live that way. Or,if they want to, let them, but leave us "progressives" alone.
Merry Christmas BJC!
Our family tradition is pickled herring and it goes back to the old country (Saxony and Hanover).
Carp? If we happen to snag one of the ugly creatures, we generally throw them into the weeds to keep them from getting back in and polluting the lake. I'd have to be mighty hungry before I'd eat a carp.
Depends on the type of carp, I believe drum are tpyes of carp.
No carp, of any type. Ever.
BTTT!!!!!!
"Our family tradition is pickled herring..."
Hubby loves herring too, but for him it's a scandanavian thing. He'll be having a bit of that, no doubt.
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