Prague campaign highlights humane treatment of carp for Christmas

Carp, a traditional centerpiece of Czech Christmas dinners, has sparked debate over its sale as a live product. This year, Prague launched a campaign urging more humane treatment of carp from pond to table, though it stops short of calling for a ban on live sales.

When it comes to eating fish, Czechs are not exactly known for their enthusiasm. In fact, they rank among the European nations with the lowest per capita fish consumption. But when Christmas arrives, the story changes entirely. The tradition of having carp for Christmas dinner is still widely upheld, and many families like to buy a live fish and keep it for one night in the bathtub before slaughtering it themselves.

"Wrong," says a new campaign in Prague, supported by Deputy Mayor for Environment Jana Komrsková from the Pirate Party:

Photo: Prague City Hall

“We want to raise awareness about treating carp, our most often sold fish, a bit differently than in the past. Specifically, we encourage people to cause the carp as little stress as possible, to have it professionally slaughtered directly at the stand where they buy it, not to release it back into the Vltava River, and not to take it home to keep it in a bathtub, as has been our somewhat peculiar tradition for the past few decades.”

In fact, polls show that the trend to have carp or other fish for Christmas dinner is declining — not to mention buying it and releasing it into rivers or lakes. But that does not mean that such a campaign calling for their humane treatment isn’t needed, says Deputy Mayor Komrsková:

“Releasing carp may be a marginal issue, but we can say that 15% of customers who buy a carp take it home alive. We want to draw attention to this so that this mindset changes a bit and people don’t give the carp a 'holiday,' so to speak. It’s not good for the fish, and unprofessional slaughtering isn’t good for it either. That’s why we’re addressing this. Of course, the Christmas season is the perfect time to focus on carp — the traditional Christmas fish, which is served in the majority of households in our country.”

She also places this effort to raise public awareness into a broader perspective:

“The goal is certainly not to ban anything. On the contrary, it’s about changing the way people think. A carp is a living fish, a living being. As the capital city, we have rescue stations for animals, so even now, during the period leading up to New Year’s Eve with all the fireworks, animals end up with us, and we take care of them, which costs a significant amount of money. So, in connection with this period, we would like to point out that carp, too, are creatures that deserve some compassion.”

Deputy Mayor of Prague for Environment Jana Komrsková. It seems that with a campaign like this Prague aims to modernize traditions while preserving the unique cultural significance of the Christmas carp.