French food lovers are being urged to boycott one of the country's best known delicacies, frogs' legs.

The Animal Rights' League says millions of the creatures are being butchered in horrific circumstances.

About 4,000 tonnes of frogs' legs are exported annually to France, mainly from Indonesia.

But, launching a campaign called Have Pity on the Frogs, Stephan Ne, spokesman for the Animal Rights League, said: "Amputating [the legs of] a live frog is barbaric and cruel.

"Sometimes the frogs remain in agony for an hour before they die."

He said the frog collectors work at night, netting wild frogs and piling them in bags of 300.

'Barbaric' practice

Mr Ne said the practice was not only barbaric, but was also a threat to certain species and their environment.

"Perhaps people are more sensitive to the suffering of a horse than a frog, but it's the same problem," he said.

"It's time French people changed their eating habits."

French animal-rights groups have in the past tried to persuade their fellow countrymen to stop eating France's best-known delicacy, but their previous campaigns have met with little success.