Posted on 06/18/2006 3:26:40 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SYDNEY (AFP) - An Australian state government called for the army to be deployed against an invasion of toxic toads.
Battalions of imported cane toads are marching relentlessly across northern Australia and the West Australian government wants soldiers to intercept the environmental barbarians.
State Environment Minister Mark McGowan has written to Defence Minister Brendan Nelson asking permission to use soldiers based in the neighbouring Northern Territory to kill the toads.
"The army in the Northern Territory is greater than any other part of Australia," McGowan told national radio.
"We'd seek the Commonwealth (federal government) to help us in fighting this terrible threat to native fauna in Western Australia."
The toads, Bufo Marinus, were introduced from South America into northeast 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 through the Northern Territory, upsetting the country's ecosystem in their wake.
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.
All attempts to fight the spread of the toads so far have failed.
IMPORTING RACCOONS? The mind boggles. I wonder how much I could get from these hunters if I let them camp in my yard.
"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."
Holy smoke. Maybe THIS is the antichrist. Or if it isn't, can we turn 'em loose on the antichrist?
Call in the army? How about kids with BB guns? Toads make excellent "plinking" targets.
People are getting high by sucking on the toads
Calling all raccoonnookkeepers!
These toads get the size of 2 fists.
When I lived in S. Fla. my dog got one. Aside from the symptoms described, his eyes rolled around.
The vet saved him. He never touched another one.
I used BBcaps(about as loud as a cap gun) in a .22 pistol to dispatch many. They loved my dog's food.
They have toad hunts in Queensland and take the toads home and put them in the freezer. There they just peacefully go to sleep and it is considered the humane way to destroy toads. However, knowing how resilient toads are, they would probably hop off the moment they thawed.
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