LOUIS BURKE | Culture | CONTACT
With another big year for cane toads on the cards, Queensland, NT, WA and upper NSW are being asked to do their bit to slow the population growth of this invasive species, humanely of course.
Nearly 100 years since the first 102 cane toads were brought to North Queensland and the certified pests have become somewhat of a cultural icon in Queensland, becoming the mascot for one sports team and creating a whole new sport in itself; cane toad golf.
Although the self-explanatory game is fun for the whole family, there are some people who think it’s cruel to swing a golf club into the brain of an animal who didn’t ask to be born on land it’s not indigenous to anymore than you did.
According to these ‘experts’, it is much more humane to dispatch cane toads using the ‘chill & freeze’ method where cane toads are put to sleep in the fridge and then painlessly finished off in the freezer.
While this method is out of reach for the 12 Queenslanders who don’t own a second fridge, one such promoter of the chill & freeze method is good old Queensland boy Jimmy Telicki, who shows his love for his state by ethically removing this invasive species.
“Oh, this?” asked Jimmy when our reporters asked him why he was carrying a golf club or ‘driver’ in old man terms.
“This is just for back up of course. You can’t blame me, the things are getting bigger and plastic bags don’t come cheap anymore.”
“Yeah, I do the right thing most of the time. I collect them live then pop a bag of poisonous toads in the fridge next to the fresh produce I paid for and will eat later. Then once they’ve been hanging out with my bottles of sauce for about a day, I remember to put them in the freezer next to the party pies and hope I don’t get too stoned later and cook a tray of roast toads.”
“And yeah, sometimes when I can’t be bothered I smash them with a club, it’s funny as fuck.”
