Poles cut the carp!
Share
Holly, mistletoe, carols…and carp? Turkeys might be dreading Christmas in much of the Western world, but in Poland they are safe - Poles prefer to tuck in to a succulent, freshly-killed carp. But a campaign is afoot to force Poles to be more humane in their treatment of this fish.
Fried carp, carp stuffed with almonds, Jewish-style carp, even carp in jelly: Poles just can’t get enough of this fish at Christmas time. They munch their way through 20,000 tonnes annually, most of it eaten as night falls on Christmas Eve, when, as it is a Catholic holiday, no meat must be eaten.
Yuletide carp - which, according to many Poles, should traditionally bought alive for extra freshness - start appearing swimming around in large buckets and basins in supermarkets and local grocery stores in the days leading up to Christmas.
Poles - like the Czechs and a number of other central Europeans - take them back home and keep them in the bath where the slimy beasts await to be dispatched. This is a job normally given to the male of the household, who - after a few vodkas for Dutch courage - does the deed with the assistance of a small hammer or other blunt implement.
Carping on about animal rights?
But the welfare of the fish over the last few years has become the object of protests from animal rights activists, lead by the environmental NGO Klub Gaja.
Klub Gaja launched their latest annual campaign earlier this month under the slogan “Poles like carp, carp like ice”. The aim of the media blitz is to get fish-hungry customers to buy their carp frozen. It improves the flavour, says Klub Gaja, and stops the fish being kept in overcrowded conditions in buckets, often filled with days-old dirty water. And it also spares the male of the household from having to bash the carp over the head before it goes in the pot!
Klub Gaja is now swimming with the tide on animal rights in Poland. After a three year campaign by activists, a change of the law in Poland means that carp now have rights, too.
By getting the fish defined as a vertebrate, it now comes under Poland’s developing animal rights legislation. Keeping carp in inhumane conditions can lead to a fine or even imprisonment.
“Our inspectors will monitor conditions,” veterinary inspector Tomasz Wielich from Poznan, western Poland, told the TVN24 news channel. “A letter sent by Chief Vet Janusz Związka has already been sent to regional veterinary inspectors, which highlights the need to monitor the law on transport, sale and killing of the fish.”
The new law controls wholesale and retail storage. But it also covers how customers treat the fish if they choose to take a live one back home.
According to the new regulations, carp can only be killed by a blow to the head. Children should not be present. And as the law demands that the fish must be kept in shops in containers of water that is constantly pumped with oxygen, the centuries-old practice of keeping it in the bath is now, technically, illegal.
It remains to be seen, however, how many homes will be raided by officials in the run up to the holiday this year, looking for Christmas carp abuse.
