Frogs in the Abattoir

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) – Peruvian officials saved some 4,000 endangered
frogs from being whizzed into popular drinks after they were found hidden
in an abattoir.

"We were checking the fridges when out jumped a frog. It had escaped,
they were in big crates," a spokesman for Lima city hall said on Thursday.

Frog cocktails are popular in the Andes because of their supposed aphrodisiac
qualities. Shops in central Lima selling the drinks have tanks where customers
can choose their frogs.

He said the Telmatobius frogs — which had apparently been brought from
the southern lakes in the high Andes — were found on Wednesday stored
in the abattoir.

They were taken to a colonial fountain in central Lima to splash around
before being returned to their native lakes by ecological police.

"There were about 5,000 of them but 1,000 died because of the conditions
and in transit," the spokesman said.

We admit we had to look abattoir up in the dictionary.  We sorta
thought it meant a frilly French dressing room decorated with low sofas
for trysts and spells of the vapors. Couldn’t be further from the
truth! Turns out it means SLAUGHTERHOUSE! Just like the French to come
up with a perfumed euphamism like that.

Although we are not familiar with the Telmatobius genus, we do have
some passing aquaintence with Peruvian frogs, specifically Bufo Aqua,
native to the Peruvian Amazon and used in Shamanistic ceremonies because
they produce an extremely psychoactive substance called Bufotenine. All
Bufo toads have parotid glands on their backs. The parotid glands produce
many different biologically active compounds-such as the neurotransmitters
serotonin (5-hydroxy-tryptamine), epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine-which
vary from species to species.This
gunk can be ingested directly or dried and smoked, and produces an intense
but short duration psychedelic experience with warm body rushes and perceptual
alterations, both audio and visual.

As to the aphrodesiac frogs, we are somewhat skeptical, although
we have seen first hand another Peruvian jungle aphrodesiac,
Chuchuwasi, reduce in two hours a pair of prim and proper Swiss schoolteachers
to raving, semi-nude harlots dry-humping anything that didn’t flee, so
we have to admit the possibility. We promise our readers to investigate
on our next trip to Peru, before the end of this year.

from Reuters