A PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) investigation claims to have exposed the “horrific systematic abuse” of frogs in Vietnam’s frog meat industry. Under Vietnamese law, livestock farmers are required to treat non-human animals “humanely” and “minimize pain and fear.” However, the NGO’s undercover footage appears to show workers routinely mutilating, skinning and dismembering conscious frogs with pincers and scissors.

The secretly recorded footage documents workers putting frogs in bags and dumping them in tubs of ice water before slaughter, which PETA says is an ineffective stunning method according to leading veterinary associations.

Mimi Bekhechi, PETA’s campaign adviser, says, “Frogs endure unbearable suffering when they are cut open, skinned alive and dismembered for their paws, fully conscious. PETA is calling on everyone to help stop this horrific mistreatment — and prevent the suffering of frogs — by going vegan.”

“Under Vietnam’s Law on Animal Health (2015), individuals and organizations responsible for animals, including pets and livestock, have a duty of care. Owners and organizations must also account for the different needs of species — which means the law recognizes animals’ sentience.”

“These frog-breeding facilities, however, seem to operate with callous disregard for the animals’ pain and suffering, brazenly violating national law.”

“The four facilities visited by investigators were industrialized places that should have had processes in place [but] workers were regularly documented pulling living frogs out of their skins. What PETA Asia documented was described to investigators as best practices,” she tells Food Ingredients First.

Vietnam’s growing market

Vietnam is one of the world’s leading exporters of frogs’ legs. According to a Pro Wildlife report (2022), the country supplies around 20% of the European frog leg market.

Pro Wildlife outlines how Vietnam’s frog farming industry has been expanding since the 2000s despite wild frog populations being in serious decline due to over-exploitation.

The report also highlights that in 2010, “the Vietnamese government recognized the potential of the frog farming industry as a food source and poverty alleviation strategy and included frog farming as an element to expand in the aquaculture industry by 2020.”

However, Pro Wildlife suggests that frog farming in Vietnam is characterized by low profitability, as detailed in a doctoral thesis (Nguyen 2017) published by Central Queensland University, Australia.

The NGO notes that while Indonesia dominates the world’s supply of frog meat, Vietnam’s position has increased from 8% to 21%, and China’s has fallen from 3% to less than 1%.

Europe’s import influence

Pro Wildlife indicates that from 2011–2020 the EU imported approximately 41,000 metric tons of frogs. The report suggests that Belgium has been the EU’s main direct importer of frog meat (70%), followed by France (17%) and the Netherlands (6%).

Internal EU trade data from 2010–2019 shows that most of Belgium’s imports were reexported to other EU countries.

“French supermarket Leclerc sells frogs’ legs from Vietnam, and PETA entities are calling for this sale to end,” says Bekhechi.

“Other French supermarket chains Thiriet and Picard have a permanent ban on all frog meat, while Intermarché has stopped sourcing frogs’ legs from Vietnam and Indonesia.”

However, Pro Wildlife points out that Europe and the US still import “enormous” amounts of frogs’ legs.

“While frogs imported into the US are mostly farmed, the EU’s imports until today mostly derive from wild-caught specimens from Indonesia,” the report reads.

“Accordingly, the EU’s demand for frogs’ legs makes it the largest global importer of wild-caught frogs, giving it a central responsibility to establish conservation measures to prevent the decline of certain species and serious negative ecological impact.”

Indonesia’s industry dominance

Indonesia remains the world’s largest exporter of frog meat. According to Pro Wildlife’s report, the EU has been the major importer of Indonesian frogs’ legs for several decades, taking in more than 83% of its exports (Kusrini 2005).

Pro Wildlife estimates that Indonesia exports between 28–142 million frogs annually, based on EU import data. Meanwhile, Kusrini (2005) suggests that 2–7 times as many frogs are consumed in Indonesia.

“[The Vietnam study] is PETA Asia’s second recent study of the frog leg industry,” says Bekhechi.

“The group previously exposed Indonesian institutions that captured frogs in their natural habitat and stuffed them into sealed bags, wher they slowly suffocated as they tried to escape. Then workers cut off the frogs’ heads and legs and skinned them, sometimes while they were still alive and conscious.”

“No matter what country companies buy frogs’ legs from, the animals will always suffer.”

We recently reported on an undercover PETA investigation claiming to expose the “extreme suffering” of Asian luwaks on Indonesian kopi luwak (or civet coffee) farms.