Christmas carp slaughter sparks controversy in Poland

By Eva Krafczyk Dec 23, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Warsaw - Every year on Christmas Eve, there is a bloodbath in many Polish bathrooms, as people slaughter a carp which they want as fresh as possible for the upcoming traditional dinner.

Animal rights activists have been appealing for years to Poles to grab their fish from the freezer. But many continue to swear by the freshly slaughtered carp.

The market-bought fish divides opinions.

Up until Christmas Eve, it swims around in the bathtub or sink. Children may get used to the scaly housemate and lose their appetite when they see the fish on their plate.

Arguments also arise because housewives do not want to clean blood from the bathroom tiles just hours before opening their gifts.

'It's a mess,' complains Kinga Lisicka from Warsaw, who decided this year to go with a frozen fish instead. 'When the carp doesn't die with the first hit of the mallet, then blood spurts all over. And you don't feel like Christmas anymore.'

Poland's prosecutor general Andrzej Seremet has also discovered a heart for the carp. Right on time for the pre-Christmas carp carnage, Seremet sent a four-page advisory circular to all public prosecutors in the country, telling them to stop the cruelty to animals.

Carp should be killed in a 'humane manner' - and the mallet is not humane, Seremet argued. Violators could face up to a year in prison, he warned. 'Carp are vertebrates and fall under the animal welfare law,' the prosecutor general wrote.

The circular met with a restrained reaction from the prosecutorial authorities. In interviews, some of them laughed off the notion that carp should be protected. They had plenty of more important things to do, many said. Others talked about the difficulty of determining guilt in such cases.

Another issue is the cuteness factor, with carp falling far behind goggle-eyed baby seals or soft small tigers in that regard. A floundering fish in a shopping bag does not scream out for public outrage, as does a puppy beaten by its owner.

Seremet's few supporters include the conservation organization Klub Gaja. 'We cannot allow for a living thing to be treated like a product for the sake of quick profits,' said Gaja boss Jacek Bozek.

The Christmas carp is the only item in grocery store which is sold alive, Bozek noted. 'It should be laid out dead on ice, just like all other fish,' the activist said.