Today, a Facebook friend posted a picture of a cane toad saying she thought they were cute. Many comments quickly followed of people exuding hatred of toads.
Personally, I have great sympathy for cane toads. It’s not their fault that they are in Australia. Ill-thought out plans to introduce a species from another country led to the ‘disaster’ that is toads. The toads were introduced to eat the ‘cane beetle’ in Northern Queensland. But they didn’t eat them. Instead, they bred rapidly and adapted to their new home easily.
A few years ago, I wrote a two-part geography book series called Australia’s Invaders. In it, I tracked thirty species of animals and plants, both aquatic and land-based, that were introduced pests of this country. And as I researched each species, I grew sicker and sicker at writing over and over again that these species were deliberately introduced by men, mostly the English. (Some have been accidental introductions, but the majority were deliberate.)
Here’s a section from my author’s note in the book:
“Animals classified as pests in this country deserve to be treated with respect and humaneness while simultaneously upholding the rights of our native species. ‘Pest’ species are native to someone else’s country… These animals, which may experience protection in their native country (just as we protect native species), have the same biology and senses in this country and, therefore, feel the same levels of pain and suffering regardless of the country in which they reside… Pest species do need to be managed… but we have choices about the way we do this.”
The reality is that land clearing is the number one killer of wildlife in this country–not cats, not dogs, not toads. It is people that need to be managed, not the unfortunate animals that suffer because of their actions.
Much more often than I would like, I hear people boasting about the way they hit toads with golf clubs or spray them with Dettol to kill them. These are both inhumane actions against an animal that is not so dissimilar to a frog, and yet most wouldn’t even think about doing that to a frog because we have defined frogs as “good” and toads as “bad”.
Logically, you cannot get rid of toads. They breed too quickly and are just too hardy. The only way we will get rid of them now is to take genetic action to remove their ability to breed. There’s no point in killing the toad in your backyard. There are dozens more waiting to replace it.
So if you are one of those people who likes to kill toads, ask yourself why. Is it because you fear them? Is it because you have been conditioned to believe they are ugly? Is it because you enjoy violence? You cannot get rid of the toad population, so why do it?
All animals are sentient beings and deserve to be treated with respect. Moreover, turn the focus back on yourself and humankind and ask the question, ‘How can we do our best to caretake these animals that we have put in such danger?”
Like spam introduced species are almost a fact of life in todays globalised world. There have been notable successes in introducing bio-controls to deal with other pests, the cactoblastus (?) moth being the best example. Yes Cane Toads were introduced in an early but poorly researched effort to control other pests bioogically but they must be eradicated. Cane Toads represent one of the biggest threats to Australian native species, as welll as our own pets. If you had seen an animal die a slow lingering death after biting one of these things you mighty reconsider. Popped in a bag and put in a freezer is probably the most humane way one can deal with them at home. The CSIRO should have made the eradication of this pest a priotity years ago!
I agree that they should have made this a priority years ago and I am advocating HUMANE measures to deal with them. Reproductive control is the most humane way we can deal with them (but, yes, the freezer is a good alternative). Yes, toads are poisonous, but so are many plants (lantana is toxic to cattle, for example, and a massive problem in Australia), there are heaps of weeds that are poisonous to horses and can kill them, and let’s not forget our native snakes, ticks and spiders. I’m not arguing that we should love cane toads, just that we should treat them with respect and accept that since we brought them here we have a responsibility to them as well, and that means treating them fairly. Another thing to consider before embarking on manual eradication (such as Dettol and cane toad cricket) is that the Australian Museum states that two-thirds of cane toad suspects actually “turn out to be harmless native frogs (such as the Banjo Frog) that need our protection”. That’s pretty poor odds.