From Chinatown to the Champs-Élysées

Frogs’ Legs Belong on Frogs

Frogs are fascinating, feeling individuals, and many of them are devoted and resourceful parents. Some male frogs are regular “Mr Moms,” with Dad ferrying each of his tadpoles on his back to their own little puddle. Frogs have personalities that range from bold and active to peaceful and relaxed, and they communicate through a rich variety of whistles, chirps, croaks, ribbits, clucks, peeps, barks, and grunts. Yet PETA Asia investigators found that throughout Indonesia, these sensitive amphibians are snatched from their natural homes, crammed into sacks, and violently dismembered – all so their legs can be sold to restaurants.

Their suffering starts the moment they’re grabbed by workers, who stuff them into crowded sacks, where they remain for up to two agonizingly long days, many of them slowly suffocating. PETA Asia investigators saw a worker slamming live frogs onto the ground while sorting the living ones from the dead and workers hacking at their heads with knives. Many of them were still alive and moving when workers tore them apart and ripped off their skin. Investigators documented that frogs’ mouths opened and closed after decapitation and that their headless bodies continued to move for minutes after they were slaughtered.

This horror isn’t isolated: PETA Asia investigators found egregious cruelty to frogs in every randomly selected facility they visited in Indonesia.

Sold as ‘Delicacies’ While Their Populations Dwindle

The main market for frogs’ legs is France, where they’re considered a delicacy. Indonesia, the world’s largest exporter of frogs’ legs, sells hundreds of millions of them to distributors in the EU every year. And the damage wrought by this industry extends beyond the nightmare it inflicts on frogs. Indonesian suppliers deliberately mislabel the frog species they sell, and research from various sources has shown that frog populations in Indonesia have declined in recent decades. If this trend continues, problems stemming from ecological imbalance – such as an increased use of pesticides due to a lack of insects’ natural predators – will inevitably develop.

Putting Grocers on Notice

PETA Asia’s investigation made a splash in France when Le Monde, the country’s most widely read newspaper, published its shocking findings. In the wake of PETA Asia’s exposé, French supermarket retailers Auchan and Système U suspended their orders with the supplier implicated in the investigation and Carrefour introduced a permanent policy against sourcing frogs’ legs from Indonesia.

But that’s not enough. Frogs’ legs should be dropped from every menu.