Aussies Bicker Over How to Murder Toads

Residents of Western Australia, Oz’s largest state, are incensed by a government mandate that might seem odd to those in, say, Kansas: When engaged in the mass killing of cane toads, use the cricket bat instead of the bag of carbon dioxide. Aussies have long made a sport of cane toad genocide—the amphibian is a voracious and toxic invasive species—and CO2 has emerged as the humane alternative to bludgeoning. Not so, say authorities.

The state thinks the toads suffer during suffocation by CO2, and would prefer the “traditional” methods of freezing or whacking pending further tests. “It's quick, it's effective,” a spokeswoman tells the AP. “That's going right back to giving people a golf stick and telling them to go forth and conquer!” a veteran toad fighter complains. Another has more practical concerns. “If you hammer a toad, you've got to be very clever and very quick to be able to kill it instantly.” (More cane toad stories.)