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Czech campaigners call for end to cruel carp Christmas tradition
AFP via Yahoo! ^ | 12/22/2004 | staff

Posted on 12/22/2004 4:34:43 PM PST by BJClinton

Czech campaigners call for end to cruel carp Christmas tradition

Wed Dec 22,12:13 PM ET

Add to My Yahoo!  Top Stories - AFP

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.

Photo
AFP/File Photo

 

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.


TOPICS: Food; Pets/Animals; Society
KEYWORDS: animalrights; czechrepublic; fish; fishing; peta; vegetarians
it is important to differentiate between "true animal protectors" and those who want to convert the world to vegetarianism or to vegetalism.

That about sums it up.
1 posted on 12/22/2004 4:34:44 PM PST by BJClinton
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To: farmfriend


2 posted on 12/22/2004 4:38:00 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: BJClinton

The animal rights zealots are a disturbance to the peace in general. I loathe them.


3 posted on 12/22/2004 4:45:31 PM PST by Jaysun (DEMOCRATS: "We need to be more effective at fooling people.")
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To: BJClinton

"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!


4 posted on 12/22/2004 4:54:49 PM PST by jocon307 (Jihad is world wide. Jihad is serious business. We ignore global jihad at our peril.)
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To: BJClinton; abbi_normal_2; Ace2U; adam_az; Alamo-Girl; Alas; alfons; alphadog; amom; AndreaZingg; ...
Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
5 posted on 12/22/2004 4:57:57 PM PST by farmfriend ( Congratulation. You are everything we've come to expect from years of government training.)
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To: jocon307

Our family tradition is pickled herring and it goes back to the old country (Saxony and Hanover).


6 posted on 12/22/2004 5:19:06 PM PST by BJClinton (A Perfect Rovian Storm)
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To: BJClinton

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.


7 posted on 12/22/2004 5:42:42 PM PST by SoDak (home of Senator John Thune)
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To: SoDak

Depends on the type of carp, I believe drum are tpyes of carp.


8 posted on 12/22/2004 6:47:28 PM PST by BJClinton (A Perfect Rovian Storm)
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To: BJClinton

No carp, of any type. Ever.


9 posted on 12/22/2004 7:14:00 PM PST by SoDak (home of Senator John Thune)
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To: farmfriend

BTTT!!!!!!


10 posted on 12/23/2004 3:11:05 AM PST by E.G.C.
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To: BJClinton

"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.


11 posted on 12/23/2004 5:31:28 AM PST by jocon307 (Jihad is world wide. Jihad is serious business. We ignore global jihad at our peril.)
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