Leave frogs alone
Leave frogs alone
In case you haven’t heard, Hawaii has coqui tree frogs, famous for their nocturnal chirp that is either loved or loathed, depending on where you live.
For some people in North Kohala, it’s coqui loathing, which the County Council is about to further encourage with a grant of $2,500 to a nonprofit dedicated to killing coquis in Kohala, according to County Resolution 550-16, being heard Wednesday.
Ironically, a study on Hawaii’s coquis published in December 2014 in the journal Biological Conservation found, “Residents’ attitudes correlated with coqui frog abundance, but in an unexpected direction: People with more frogs on their property and those who owned that property tended to have less negative attitudes toward the coqui.”
This means people in East Hawaii, who live with coquis, like them more than people in North Kohala, who have fewer coquis. Familiarity brings appreciation.
Unfortunately, intolerance and fear brings funding, specifically to buy citric acid to burn the frogs to death, accidentally also killing geckos, skinks, insects and other nontargets.
On the mainland, burning frogs to death is considered animal cruelty. In Hawaii, it is considered a reason for a grant.
Millions already have been spent in vain to kill coquis. Beyond being a waste of money and causing environmental damage, funding a frog war is perpetuating frog phobia and encouraging intolerance and animal cruelty.
Efforts will be endless, requiring endless grants from the county that further feed this unfounded fear of frogs.
The fact is, coquis are now part of Hawaii, and will continue to spread. Adapting to inevitable change is a sign of mental health. For others, though, frog phobia has turned otherwise peaceful people into angry, acid-spewing, coqui-killing vigilantes.
The government should be giving these people stress reduction and coping strategies for dealing with change, not more acid.
Sydney Ross Singer
Pahoa