AR-News: French police smash frog poaching network

[Ronda Roaring]

French police smash frog poaching network 

31.05.2004 3.23 pm 

PARIS - Gendarmes in eastern France have dismantled an elaborate poaching network which has been preying on a protected species and much-prized delicacy: the frog. 
Seven people have been arrested, accused of conspiring to evade French laws establishing quotas and closed seasons for the catching of pool frogs and edible frogs, whose legs have been a staple of French cuisine for centuries. 
A restaurateur in the Haute-Saone area of Franche-Comte, near the Swiss border, is also said to be facing possible legal action for buying contraband grenouilles de pays, or local frogs. 
Gendarmes and wildlife protection officials say this is the first time that an entire poaching network - from the frog-catchers to the processors and traders to the restaurateurs - has been dismantled in this way. 
The small, green and sometimes reddish frogs whose legs can be eaten have become relatively rare in France, but are still abundant in some areas. More than 90 per cent of the market is now supplied by frogs imported from Eastern Europe. 
Gourmets insist, however, that these do not have the true flavour of the domestic French frog, which can fetch up to 0.25 (16p) a time. 
One night's illegal frog fishing can net up to 1,000 frogs - worth 250 on the black market. 
French wildlife protection laws allow wild pool frogs and edible frogs to be caught for personal use only, in the frog-hunting season between May and September. Frogs are also farmed under strictly enforced quotas. 
Beating this system has now become an elaborate industry, said Didier Ory, head of the enforcement brigade for the French fisheries protection service in the Haute-Saone. 
"Frogs are being poached in their thousands, threatening not just their survival, but the whole ecosystem." 
French frogs are regarded as "richer in taste" than Eastern European frogs, said Michel Couturier, a fish and frog farmer in Burgundy. 
"When producers cannot meet demand, restaurateurs deal with poachers," he said. 
Some restaurants do not advertise frogs' legs on their menus but serve them only to aficionados, who know which eateries will secretly sell the illegal frogs' legs. 
- INDEPENDENT


		
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