Have a go at them toadies !
Posted on 04/12/2005 11:15:32 AM PDT by kingattax
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian lawmaker outraged animal rights activists by suggesting an invasion of poisonous cane toads be fought by bashing the beasts with cricket bats and golf clubs.
David Tollner, a member of parliament from Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal Party, said he grew up using the brute force method against the toads, a dangerous and despised pest that is spreading across northern Australia.
"We hit them with cricket bats and golf clubs and the like," Tollner said on ABC radio.
"I think if people could be encouraged rather than discouraged (to attack them) the better the chance will be of stopping the cane toads arriving in Darwin and other parts of the top of Australia," said the lawmaker, who represents the Northern Territory.
Animal rights groups clubbed the lawmaker's suggestion
"We don't want children picking up their golf club or their cricket bat in the backyard and having a go at any animal," said Fiona Cummins, chief executive of the RSPCA in Darwin.
Cummins said encouraging children to bash cane toads could lead to attacks on other animals.
"We've had cases recently in Darwin where we've had children having violent acts towards bats; interstate we've had violence towards kittens," she said.
Cane toads were introduced into Queensland state in the 1930s to control another pest -- beetles that were ravaging the sugar cane fields of the tropical northern coasts.
But the toads now number in the millions and are spreading westward into the Northern Territory, posing a deadly danger to native wildlife.
Cane toads have poisonous sacs on the back of their heads full of a venom so powerful it can kill crocodiles, snakes or other predators in minutes.
The animals, explosive breeders, have spread into the wetlands of world heritage Kakadu National Park and were recently found in the outskirts of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory.
All attempts to fight the spread of the toads so far have failed.
The Northern Territory government last month announced it would spend a million dollars (770,000 US) to research biotechnological remedies to the invasion.
The state earlier launched a competition with a cash prize for the best cane toad trap.
Tollner meanwhile was unimpressed by criticism of his suggestion.
"When you talk about animal rights I think you've got to think about the rights of our native animals as well," Tollner said.
"A cane toad can cause a slow death in a crocodile or a goanna (monitor lizard) or any other animal that eats it," he said.
"My view is we've got to eradicate them by any means possible."
Have a go at them toadies !
You can't get away from these liberal nuts. It must be all the pollution in the last 30 years. It's eating their brains.
You can't get away from these liberal nuts. It must be all the pollution in the last 30 years. It's eating their brains.
I wonder how far Greg Norman could hit one of these with a 5 iron. Any guesses ?
Screw the toads - give them the Rachael Corrie treatment. Don't they have steamrollers in Australia?
Whats the sound they make when you run em over with your wheels?
it would be more fun to tee one up...this aussie HAS to be a golfer
I think they should just feed them to the animal rights activists - get rid of two different types of toads that way.
Animals cannot have rights, because they are incapable of recognizing the rights of others. Rights are reciprocal, and the concept loses all meaning when applied to a creature constitutionally incapable of rational thought as an expression of free will.
The Magic Bullet?
Ban cricket bats.
The really funny part about this (well, I think it's funny, anyways) is that nobody bothered to check to see if the Cane toads would even eat the beetles. They won't.
Talk about a sticky wicket..
Wouldn't work. Toads are smart enough to get out of the way.
I gotta agree with the liberals on this one! Call Kerry! Call the UN! Call Jimmah Carter! We need not resort to violence; we surely can reason with the cane toads! If we can put a man on the moon, surely we can educate the toads, inform them, and use sweet reason to set them on the correct path. Did we learn nothing from Traitor John and the Kerry approach to terrorists?
Hey on the brighter side if you hit one in the water, you won't need to take a penalty shot, it can swim right out...
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
ROFL
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