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Exploding toads baffle German experts
AFP/Yahoo ^ | Sat Apr 23,12:16 PM ET

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.


TOPICS: Cheese, Moose, Sister; Chit/Chat; Pets/Animals; Test Topic, Ignore It; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: toadexplode
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To: Fam4Bush

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


21 posted on 04/23/2005 4:02:53 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: martin_fierro

Exploding toads baffle German experts
=======

Sounds like the original Nazis have been reincarnated. Anyone know if they burp "Sieg Heil" prior to explosion? !!! ;-))


22 posted on 04/23/2005 4:20:53 PM PDT by GeekDejure ( LOL = Liberals Obey Lucifer !!! -- Impeach Greer !!!.)
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To: martin_fierro

Don't anyone stand too close to Ted Kennedy!


23 posted on 04/23/2005 4:30:36 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (Let Me Die on My Feet in the Swamp, BUAIDH NO BAS)
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To: kingattax

Hey, You!!

While you're at it, How 'bout an exploding toad pic?? (I'm done with supper now...)


24 posted on 04/23/2005 4:43:03 PM PDT by Fam4Bush ('Coon Luvva.... : ))
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To: Charles Henrickson
"Ich bin ein Ballooner."

LOL! After a pun like that, you'll be able to hold your head up in disgrace forever.

25 posted on 04/23/2005 5:11:44 PM PDT by Grut
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

That is the funniest thing I ever read.

He sure looks like that bloated toad, doesn't he!


26 posted on 04/23/2005 5:12:03 PM PDT by JudyB1938 ("A paranoid schizophrenic is somebody who just found out what's going on." - Wm S. Burroughs, Jr.)
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To: Fam4Bush

"...he stabbed them with not a pin, but a big knife..."

A trocar?

http://www.vh.org/adult/patient/surgery/hyperhidrosis/images/trocarplacement.jpg


27 posted on 04/23/2005 5:33:21 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Get after the RAT's all of you cat people - earn your keep!)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

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?


28 posted on 04/23/2005 5:49:15 PM PDT by Fam4Bush ('Coon Luvva......aka "Moronic Inbred Country Bumpkin" : D)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

What kind of FLESH is that???


29 posted on 04/23/2005 5:51:37 PM PDT by bannie (The government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.)
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To: Fam4Bush

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.


30 posted on 04/23/2005 5:52:51 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Get after the RAT's all of you cat people - earn your keep!)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Oops. Tagline change. That was for another thread...


31 posted on 04/23/2005 5:52:56 PM PDT by Fam4Bush (..................I'm thinking......................................................................)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

IN THE OLD DAYS???????

Wow, do I feel ancient.........
Thank you so much.......


32 posted on 04/23/2005 5:55:41 PM PDT by Fam4Bush (..................I'm thinking......................................................................)
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To: Fam4Bush

Here's an article on the very thing: http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/beef/g149.htm


33 posted on 04/23/2005 5:57:09 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Get after the RAT's all of you cat people - earn your keep!)
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To: martin_fierro
gastrointestinal bacteria
34 posted on 04/23/2005 5:58:55 PM PDT by Porterville (Inside the heart of every murderer is a communist. Murderism= Communism= Liberalism)
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To: Fam4Bush

Well, I only meant the knife has been the traditional tool going wa-a-a-ay back.


35 posted on 04/23/2005 6:00:21 PM PDT by WorkingClassFilth (Get after the RAT's all of you cat people - earn your keep!)
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To: WorkingClassFilth
" Causes of bloat include: 1. an inherited tendency for bloat, 2. certain proteins in forage, 3. the amount, rate of intake, and coarseness of the roughage, 4. the type of rumen microbial population, host-parasite reaction following grub treatment, 5. choking, and 6. enlargement of the lymph-nodes between the lungs which compress the esophagus or interfere with the function of the vagus nerves." 7. tired, immature farm wife ignorance OK. Years later, I remain guilty.
36 posted on 04/23/2005 6:06:44 PM PDT by Fam4Bush (Once upon a time, I was a cow killer.)
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To: martin_fierro

Stop feeding the toads AlkaSeltzer!


37 posted on 04/23/2005 6:09:43 PM PDT by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: martin_fierro
Exploding toads baffle German experts

Someone must be playing Ramones music full blast. I know it works on mice, so why not toads?

38 posted on 04/23/2005 6:48:37 PM PDT by lowbridge
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To: Fam4Bush

"Anyone got a light ?"

39 posted on 04/23/2005 6:54:02 PM PDT by kingattax
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To: Berosus; blam; dervish; Do not dub me shapka broham; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; ...

You've got to see this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1389859/posts?page=13#13


40 posted on 04/23/2005 7:25:13 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (FR profiled updated Monday, April 11, 2005. Fewer graphics, faster loading.)
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