"Anyone got a light ?"
Posted on 04/23/2005 2:57:10 PM PDT by martin_fierro
Exploding toads baffle German experts
Sat Apr 23,12:16 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - Hundreds of toads have met a bizarre and sinister end in Germany in recent days, it was reported: they exploded.
According to reports from animal welfare workers and veterinarians as many as a thousand of the amphibians have perished after their bodies swelled to bursting point and their entrails were propelled for up to a metre (three feet).
It is like "a science fiction film", according to Werner Smolnik of a nature protection society in the northern city of Hamburg, where the phenomenon of the exploding toad has been observed.
"You see the animals crawling on the ground, swelling and then exploding."
He said the bodies of the toads expanded to three and a half times their normal size.
"I have never seen such a thing," said veterinarian Otto Horst. So bad has the death toll been that the lake in the Altona district of Hamburg has been dubbed "the pond of death."
Access to it has been sealed off and every night a biologist visits it between 2:00 and 3:00 am, which appears to be peak time for batrachians to go bang.
Explanations include an unknown virus, a fungus that has infected the water, or crows, which in an echo of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds", attack the toads, literally scaring them to death.
I saw that puncturing thing on a movie once. I thought it was a joke until a wiser person set me straight. If FreeRepublic had existed then, I could have just come in here to find out!
FreeRepublic = Consolidated Wealth of Knowledge and Wisdom CoWKaW
Exploding toads baffle German experts
=======
Sounds like the original Nazis have been reincarnated. Anyone know if they burp "Sieg Heil" prior to explosion? !!! ;-))
Don't anyone stand too close to Ted Kennedy!
Hey, You!!
While you're at it, How 'bout an exploding toad pic?? (I'm done with supper now...)
LOL! After a pun like that, you'll be able to hold your head up in disgrace forever.
That is the funniest thing I ever read.
He sure looks like that bloated toad, doesn't he!
"...he stabbed them with not a pin, but a big knife..."
A trocar?
http://www.vh.org/adult/patient/surgery/hyperhidrosis/images/trocarplacement.jpg
Looked different, with a longer tube......alfalfa and gases spit out through it. I don't know what it was called, but something that punctured....the knife was actually what he told me to use. Hey, I was only 21 years old....my memory may be a li-ttle fuzzy... :D
Are you a farmer or a vet?
What kind of FLESH is that???
Nah, but I am involved in small scale ag. Just happened to know what they use for similar kinds of things. In the old days they did, indeed, use a knife for bloated livestock.
Oops. Tagline change. That was for another thread...
IN THE OLD DAYS???????
Wow, do I feel ancient.........
Thank you so much.......
Here's an article on the very thing: http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/beef/g149.htm
Well, I only meant the knife has been the traditional tool going wa-a-a-ay back.
Stop feeding the toads AlkaSeltzer!
Someone must be playing Ramones music full blast. I know it works on mice, so why not toads?
"Anyone got a light ?"
You've got to see this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1389859/posts?page=13#13
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.