Quote of the Week
Amphibian rights category, Queensland division:
“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,” said Michael Beatty, the society’s spokesman.
As the Herald assist on this wire story indirectly suggests, a steamroller and a firehose might also be quick and effective.
Queensland lawmaker Shane Knuth has made the violent eradication of all cane toads his personal jihad, even proposing a bounty to make toad eradication more attractive to children.
I’d suggest the state of Queensland consider hiring Theo. Not for blogging services, God no. But plucking vast quantities of potatoes out of the ground is no obstacle for Norfolk’s top spud digger. How hard could loading a hopper with poisonous cane toads be?
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 7:07 am on Thursday, April 3, 2008
4 Responses to “Quote of the Week”
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April 3rd, 2008 at 8:13 am
Why not just issue every one a .22 and a box of short ammo? It would do wonders for their Biathlon team…
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 am
In the southern US, when you need to eliminate toads, you just gig ‘em.
What’s a gig, you might ask? It’s one of these on the end of a pole:
http://www.shootnhunt.com/catalog/JM/fishing_accessories/fishing_spears/
Good for toad hunting, spear fishing, troublesome neighbors, and chasing kids away from the mango tree.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Doesn’t this come under the heading “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it” ?
April 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
It’s not just a matter of being humane. Cane toads are very poisonous even after they’re dead, this is why they’ve been such a disaster to the native fauna. Whatever method you choose to kill them, you need to collect all the corpses. It probably is easiest to just throw them in a big freezer and then empty it into the garbage when it gets full.
Also, from personal experience, they’re hard to kill. You can run them over with a truck and they’ll still be going. Spearing them sounds like a good idea, but again, you need to dispose of the bodies.