http://news.discovery.com/animals/australia-cane-toad-120410.html
Bufo marinus, known by most as the Cane Toad, is the target of strange new competitions in the Land Down Under. Similiar to our
Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (jumping silver carp) killing spree competitions hosted in many states in the US, events such as "Toad Day Out" held in Queensland encourages even the smallest, most innocent children to slaughter any of the newly considered invasive species. Originally brought from Central and South America to help with a major beetle problem, the Austrialian people quickly discovered they started an entirely new problem once family pets among other animals started turning up dead after ingesting the poisionous toads. With reproduction rates on the same order of magnitude as that of rabbits, the Cane Toad has quickly spread as it has few predators in its new territory. The massive killing competitons that give prizes to the individual who has the most weight in toads killed and the biggest toad killed may look harsh and uncalled for to many not from Australia, but many natives feel it is a necessary evil that will prevent future problems. While the people who catch the toads do not kill them, they are dispatched later by "officials", whatever that means. The author of this article in particular seems a bit bias in favor of the animals, as they make references to seeing how they are "piled on top of another" and "thrown into buckts" but to me, all this proves is that rednecks are the same everywhere and will make a competition out of anything.
A few pictures from A Toad Day Out:
Bufo marinus, known by most as the Cane Toad, is the target of strange new competitions in the Land Down Under. Similiar to our Hypophthalmichthys molitrix (jumping silver carp) killing spree competitions hosted in many states in the US, events such as "Toad Day Out" held in Queensland encourages even the smallest, most innocent children to slaughter any of the newly considered invasive species. Originally brought from Central and South America to help with a major beetle problem, the Austrialian people quickly discovered they started an entirely new problem once family pets among other animals started turning up dead after ingesting the poisionous toads. With reproduction rates on the same order of magnitude as that of rabbits, the Cane Toad has quickly spread as it has few predators in its new territory. The massive killing competitons that give prizes to the individual who has the most weight in toads killed and the biggest toad killed may look harsh and uncalled for to many not from Australia, but many natives feel it is a necessary evil that will prevent future problems. While the people who catch the toads do not kill them, they are dispatched later by "officials", whatever that means. The author of this article in particular seems a bit bias in favor of the animals, as they make references to seeing how they are "piled on top of another" and "thrown into buckts" but to me, all this proves is that rednecks are the same everywhere and will make a competition out of anything.
2 comments:
Very interesting. I'm glad that they require the toads to be turned in alive and unharmed, so that they're not encouraging kids to kill animals. Presumably the toads can then be put down in a humane way. It is a bit of an ethical quandry when we have to harm individual animals to help the ecosystem, but I'm with the Aussies -- killing the invasive cane toads is the right thing to do in this case.
I agree with the Aussies as well. I would definitly say that the author is a little biased if the name of the original article is indeed the "Cane Toad Massacre". It's an invasive species and atleast they are having fun with it and stimulating their economy and becoming closer with their community by making it a festival! Invasive species take a huge toll on all the species it is imposing itself on, not just humans and their dogs. Let's do this in the Everglades with some Burmese Pythons! It's only a LITTLE bit more dangerous, Right? LOL
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