Frogs Don't Belong in Toy Stores

Ready to hit the toy stores and start your holiday shopping? At Learning Express, you can buy toy trucks, building blocks, princess dolls ... and live African dwarf frogs encased in plastic cubes.

Last month, a group of animal rights advocates, led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute professor John Sanbonmatsu, protested the sale of the frogs at a Learning Express store in Boston.

"In the wild in equatorial Africa, these animals would enjoy a rich life of sensory experiences and pleasures," Sanbonmatsu told WCBV-TV. “But entombing them inside tiny plastic prisons is to condemn them to a lifetime of slow torture.”

The tiny plastic prison Sanbonmatsu speaks of is the "Classic EcoAquarium." The 4-square-inch plastic cube comes with Chinese lucky bamboo for oxygenation and photosynthesis, "Living Gravel" that filters the water, some decorative pebbles, and two African dwarf frogs. The frogs live mainly underwater and can grow to about 2 inches in length.

Learning Express stores, the largest educational toy retailer in the U.S., “went wild” over the Classic EcoAquarium, according to a press release (pdf). Last July, the chain bestowed manufacturer, Wild Creations, with a “2010 Most Innovative New Toy” award.

But Wild Creations will never win an award from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, whose undercover investigation of the company a year ago documented “rampant neglect and mishandling of these delicate animals and total disregard for their needs, welfare, and lives.”

PETA’s investigator witnessed workers grabbing African dwarf frogs by the handful, picking them up by their fragile legs. Live frogs mistaken for being dead were tossed in the trash or dropped on the floor and left to die (according to Frog World, the creatures have a tendency to float motionless in the water). Weeks went by before the frogs were fed, leading them to chew on each others’ legs and causing loss of their limbs. Sick frogs were sent to customers instead of being quarantined, “as were frogs who were plucked from tubs containing the bloated, fungus-covered remains of decomposing frogs,” PETA reported.

Not too surprisingly, a report released last January by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 85 people in 31 states had been infected with Salmonella Typhimurium because they had been in contact with water frogs, including African dwarf frogs. Nearly 80 percent of those infected were children under the age of 10; the median age was 5. Although the FDA has banned the sale of small turtles since 1975 due to the fact that they carry salmonella, there is no ban on the sale of African dwarf frogs.

After they became aware of the frogs’ sad existence, Target and several toy store chains stopped selling the EcoAquarium and other “toys” featuring live frogs. It’s time for Learning Express to make the educated choice to stop selling the EcoAquarium as well. Please sign the petition urging the chain to remove these “toys” from its shelves.

Photo credit: James Gathany