Frog hospital croaking
2005-03-18 21:57
Sydney - Australia's first frog hospital will be forced to close unless a prince charming rides to the rescue with a bundle of cash, the curator of the Cairns, Queensland, clinic said on Friday.
"We've run out entirely," Deborah Pergolotti told Australia's AAP news agency. "Everything costs money and most of the frogs we treat cost more than a hundred dollars each to be well enough for release."
The cash crisis reflects a public perception that frogs ought to be patched up for free because, unlike the family cat or dog, they are wild things.
The privately-run Frog Decline Reversal Project gets by on donations but these have dried up like an amphibian out of water.
Arthur White, president of the Sydney-based Frog and Tadpole Study Group, urged Australians to view frogs as potential pets rather than nasty pests.
"You don't have to feed them every day, you don't have to be constantly worming them, you don't have to fork out lots of money like cats and dogs," said Dr White, who shares his home with hundreds of injured and rescued frogs. - DPA
- SAPA