"Australians have gathered for a celebratory mass culling of poisonous cane toads that have plagued farms and threatened native species for years. Hundreds of participants in five parts of northern Queensland fanned out across the countryside in search of the pests. Hours later they returned to town, snacking on sausages and sipping cold drinks as the toads they had collected were weighed, measured and killed as part of the state's inaugural "Toad Day Out" event.
"To see the look on the faces of the kids as we were handling and weighing the toads and then euthanizing them was just...," Townsville City Councilman Vern Veitch said, breaking off to let out a contented sigh. "The children really got into the character of the event."
That was 3 years ago, in March 2009, Australia's inaugural toad killing festival. And this year's killing has just taken place. These critters were introduced into Australia 75 years ago to combat beetles but that plan went horribly wrong and the toads have since bred and spread and done terrible damage, killing native wildlife and destroying natural habitat. They do sound disgusting.
Some introduced species have been beneficial in certain parts of the World but there are loads of other examples that have done terrible damage.
Question is, what to do when it's gone horribly wrong? Let the new species run rampant? Or try to kill it like the Ozzy fun-fest, or perhaps introduce its predator, then the predator of that predator, then the ...... The obvious response is "they shouldn't have done it in the first place" but not all species are introduced deliberately and whether intentional or not the results can be equally devastating.
(Note to Mods: if things get lively can you move this? )