Sunday, December 21, 2008

Surrender The Frogs!

The Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks in Montana is asking anyone who purchased an African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from the Grow-a-Frog company to either return the frog growing kits or euthanize the animals, according to this report from the Great Falls Tribune. The impetus behind this request is the concern that the frogs could escape or be released and establish in the wild. The African clawed frog has been banned in Montana since 2005, but the owner of Grow-a-Frog, a Florida-based mail order company, said that the company was only recently made aware of the ban.

Regular ISW readers may remember this post from September, about a similar situation in Nevada.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The notion that xenopus would be able to adapt to freezing temperatures is ridiculous and this recall is not warranted given the small number of people owning these frogs. Why not require a permit rather than make people give up their pets and their freedom to be responsible citizens without presuming that ALL frog owners release their pets, and NO animal owners can be trusted to ever do the right thing.

I can appreciate that invasive species can be a problem, but I also believe a nanny state is a problem too--and you might not ever believe that until someone takes away YOUR rights to own something you value.