Prohibited frogs

Reno:

State wildlife officials raided three residences in the Reno area where they seized more than 100 African clawed frogs, which they say are prohibited because they can pose a serious danger to native frogs and entire ecosystems.

No charges have been filed against the people who illegally possessed a total of 119 frogs because they are cooperating fully with law enforcement to "get any and all prohibited frogs off the streets," the Nevada Department of Wildlife said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We are very pleased we were able to seize them before they were circulated to people in the area and possibly escaped into the wild," said Cameron Waithman, game warden captain for NDOW's Division of Law Enforcement.

African clawed frogs grow about as large as bullfrogs and can destroy entire ecosystems by voraciously eating native fish, amphibians and just about anything they can swallow, he said.

This is not an anti-nanny state rant. There are plenty of good reasons to control how humans might arbitrarily move animal species around the planet. It doesn't matter how you believe they got there; if there was a good reason for any given area to have a certain animal, it would be there. Look at what happened with the cane toad in Australia, for example.

But: why? Why would three people in Reno be hoarding 119 of these enormous African frogs? I also thought "get any and all prohibited frogs off the streets" was pretty funny.