Toad Day Out

If life hands you a bunch of toxic toads, you may as well grind them up in the bass-o-matic:

For decades, the poisonous cane toad has plagued Australians, breeding rapidly, eating voraciously and bestowing death upon most animals that dare consume it.

So officials came up with a novel _ and, some say, poetic _ solution: hold a festive mass killing of the creatures and turn the corpses into fertilizer for the very farmers who've battled the pests for years.

On Saturday, residents of five communities in cane toad-plagued northern Queensland state will grab their flashlights and fan out into the night to hunt down the hated animals as part of the inaugural "Toad Day Out" celebration. The toads will be brought to collection points the next morning to be weighed and killed, with some of the remains ground into fertilizer for sugarcane farmers at a local waste management plant.

..."The cane toad is probably the most disgusting creature and the most destructive creature," said Queensland politician Shane Knuth, a longtime loather of cane toads who came up with the Toad Day Out idea. "They're killing our native wildlife, they're taking over our habitat and they're hopping all through this country."

...Organizers are trying to woo thousands of people to take part in the hunt by offering prizes for those with the biggest toad and the highest total weight of toads. Goodies range from cane toad trophies (made of actual stuffed cane toads) to a gift certificate for a local resort.

An organizers' tip sheet gives advice on how to create toad traps _ or "detention camps" _ and recommends that participants "study detention techniques to ensure your own, as well as the toad's safety _ they must be alive and unharmed for interrogation."

...The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has applauded the effort _ with one caveat.

"We're only supportive of the plan if the toads are killed humanely _ in other words, they're not hit with baseball bats or cricket bats and golf clubs," said spokesman Michael Beatty.