Kill toads for blood sport, urges Australian MP

A federal liberal MP has asked Northern Territorians to kill cane toads such as this one with clubs and bats. Picture / Reuters

CANBERRA - An Australian federal Liberal MP has urged Northern Territorians to pick up their golf clubs and cricket bats and turn the eradication of cane toads into a new blood sport.

David Tollner, the member for the NT seat of Solomon, believes the best way to wipe out the pests is to give them a swift blow to the head, a skill he practised as a child.

"We hit them with cricket bats and golf clubs and the like back then," he told ABC radio today.

"I think things were a bit different, most kids had a slug gun or an air rifle and we'd get stuck into them with that sort of stuff as well.

"If people can be encouraged to do it, rather than discouraged, the better our chance will be of stopping the cane toads arriving in Darwin and other parts of the top of Australia."

But animal welfare groups say bludgeoning cane toads to death is inhumane, and the best way to kill them is to freeze them.

"We don't want children picking up their golf club or their cricket bat in the backyard and having a go at any animal, particularly any violence towards any animal, we're certainly not advocating that at all," a Northern Territory RSPCA spokeswoman said.

"We've had cases recently in Darwin where we've had children having violent acts towards bats, interstate we've had violence towards kittens.

"We're concerned that children see it's okay to be violent towards any animals and that cats and dogs and rabbits might become a violent issue for children."

Graham Sawyer, from NT Frogwatch, says hitting a cane toad with a golf club often fails to deliver the required death blow.

"Two issues with golf clubs, one is they're fairly light, they don't have a lot of mass so whilst they hit cane toads and make a very healthy sounding smack when they do, they don't really have enough mass to crush the cane toad's skull," he told ABC radio.

But Mr Tollner says the welfare rights of native animals have to be considered before the rights of the cane toad.

"I mean a cane toad can cause a slow death in a crocodile or a goanna or any other animal that eats it," he said.

"I think at times we overlook our native wildlife and at times certain organisations can merely look at what's best for the toad.

"My view is we've got to eradicate them by any means possible."

- AAP