Toadsicles

4 April 2008



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Queensland MP Proposes “Kill-a-Toad” Day

In Australia, a Queensland MP named Shane Knuth has come up with a plan that some might call blood-thirsty. He wants a special day set aside for his state to, well, to kill cane toads. He isn't calling it "Kill-a-Toad Day," but rather, "Toad Day Out." The fact that Australia’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has backed the idea shows how bad the situation there is. The RSPCA does have one conditions for its approval; the toads have to be frozen to death.

The cane toad is a rather nasty piece of work. When the Lord created them, he must have been nursing a hangover. The toad has nasty poison glands, and the tadpoles are highly toxic if ingested. In 1935, the toad was introduced to Australia because it was thought that its poisonous nature would control agricultural pests. Instead, it has become a pest itself, killing off predators, birds and farm animals.

Mr. Knuth said, “"Basically we need . . . a special day that Queenslanders, especially children, could all play their part, very similar to Clean Up Australia [Day]. The toad is probably the greatest environmental vermin and probably the most disgusting creature known to man. Each female toad can produce up to 20,000 eggs. If even 3,000 female toads were collected, this has the potential of eliminating 60 million toads hopping around our environment.” He thinks the day should be in January, the rainy season in Australia’s sunshine state when the toads breed.

Michael Beatty of the RSPCA said that the organization backed the plan but it wanted the toads done in humanely, and at the moment, the only way to do that is freeze them. That has its own problems, though. “Obviously we're not idiots - we understand a lot people will be highly reluctant to fill their fridges and freezers with dying cane toads, but at the moment that is the only humane way that we can recommend.”

There are a few other problems with the idea. Telling a cane toad from an indigenous true-blue Aussie toad might be hard for some people. Disposal of the toadsicles is an issue. And touching the buggers to get them into the freezer exposes one to the poison (which is classified as a Class 1 drug in Australia, as is heroin – toad licking is not unheard of).

Scientists are working on a virus that will devastate the cane toad population, but thus far, they haven’t succeeded. Such an approach did cut down the wild rabbit population with Myxomatosis, which was deliberately released into the rabbit population. It caused a drop from an estimated 600 million rabbits to around 100 million. Genetic resistance in the remaining rabbits allowed the population to recover to 200-300 million by 1991. As Mr. Knuth says, “We will be waiting 50 years if we rely on science. This is a way that will solve the toad problem.”

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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