Frogsite: The Frog

Introduction

From the 18th century, where an ignorant and dangerous Swedish "scientist", Carolus Linnaeus, characterized the frog with the words "These foul and loathsome animals are abhorrent because of their cold body, pale color, cartilaginous skeleton, filthy skin, fierce aspect, calculating eye, offensive smell, harsh voice, squalid habitation, and terrible venom..." until today, humanity has generally frowned upon and rejected the frog. By reading this page in its entirety, you may get a reasonable and sensible view of the frog by getting a sense of the great wonder that the frog really is: The frog is one of God's most beautiful gifts to Earth -- when looking at it objectively: In terms of the the frog's habitatual versatility, the frog's utility value as a bug eater, the frog's close integration with nature, the frog's beautiful colors, the frog's peaceful nature, the frog's brave explorative nature, and so on!

To the frog ignorant, the frog is somewhat hard to classify mentally: Many people have adopted a simplistic, unfair view that treats the frog as a cold-blooded machine. Frogsite hopes to show you that the frog is not a little machine, but a little animal-person who innocently lives and explores the world that he or she has been created into. The frog reveals his or her genuine intelligence when the frog is held by human. The way the frog interacts with the human when the human holds the frog clearly shows that the frog is intelligent: Capable of reacting in a non-mechanic manner, capable of concluding "this will last a while" and to decide to make the best of the situation by making the situation comfortable by moving about in the hand of the human until the frog sits comfortably. Another point where the frog is unique in its superior intelligence in the animal kingdom is seen in the case of the African Bullfrog: The African Bullfrog male naturally and without hesitation digs a canal from one pond to another when a pond housing the male's tadpoles is in danger of drying out. I have seen this several times on National Geographics Channel. This example shows something profound about the frog: The frog, unlike all other animals than the human, comprehends the relation between digging a canal and water moving in the canal. The frog simply understands, in other words is intelligent enough to understand, that by digging a canal between two ponds, the frog can move water. This is a truly profound discovery! Sit back, think it over, and contemplate it every day for the next four weeks: The frog digs canals! (Learn to love the frog!) We have been looking to Mars for canals, signs of intelligence other than our own. And all the time it has been sitting right under our nose in Africa on Earth: The African Bullfrog. The Canal-Digging Frog of Earth! No other form of animal life but the frog, that I know of, has been observed digging canals. And the African Bullfrog does this as naturally and untroubledly as he eats. He sees that the water is drying up in the pond that houses his babies and then immediately begins digging a canal, in the footage that I have seen, about 0.5 meters in length. Over 20 minutes or so, he completes a canal. The footage shows how the water runs into the pond that's drying up and how the tadpoles swim after their father who leads the way into the other pond. This discovery, thank you O National Geographics Channel (please send the footage to the President and ask him to ban frog pithing!), means that the ancient question: "Is there intelligent life in the universe beyond us humans?" can be answered readily with the reply "Yes, there is the frog and probably every other animal of Earth". One of the oldest philosophical questions in human history finally answered: "YES, YES, my friend! The frog of Earth is an intelligent and peaceful little guy!" When seen as a little animal-person, the wonder of the frog gradually becomes evident: Many frog species are very explorative and wander about for miles away from the pond that is their normal home. Some frogs swim across miles of ocean water to populate new islands. This despite the fact that the frog is a tiny creature that most often has absolutely no defense beyond jumping away at a pace that most enemies can easily outmatch. The page explores The Frog Paradigm, the design paradigm of the frog, in great detail with the basic assumption that the frog is an intelligent form of life, created by an intelligent form of life, not a simple mechanic form of life which manifested randomly in mid-air some day due to a computing error in The Matrix. The objective of Frogsite is to make you see the wonder of the frog -- see that the frog is a designed wonder, not an evolutionary gimmick!

The frog, which includes all toads, is a marvel of creation! The frog goes through a nearly magic transformation from tadpole to adult frog during childhood. Imagine that: Starting your life as a little tadpole, learning to swim and explore water, and then some day beginning to grow legs, after which you live your adult life on land! The tadpole is a vegetarian, the adult eats mostly meat. The transformation is awesome! The frog is versatile in habitats and ways of living. Not until you have taken the time to research the frog thorougly, by spending a few evenings searching for "frogs" on Google and reading what people have to say about the frog, will you see how great a wonder the frog is. Frogsite can only hope to give you a sense of this wonder.

With the frog, God probably wanted to create a species that excels all-round: No other form of life is as versatile as the frog in behaviors and habitats! It is almost a surprise that we don't have a flying frog. Oops, we actually do have a flying frog: The Borneo flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) paraglides from tree to tree through the air!

The frog is a very natural form of life: The frog integrates highly with the habitat that the frog lives in. The frog relies heavily on the habitat for producing off-spring: the female frog lays a number of eggs, which the male frog then fertilizes outside the female frog. The eggs are then commonly hatched in water, or on a leaf: The frog that way uses the environment itself as an external womb. The eggs hatch into tadpoles: Small creatures built solely for swimming (free from parental supervision, making room for the most wonderful, free childhood without demanding and nagging parents). The tadpoles stay in water up to a couple of months after which the tadpoles begin to develop arms and legs. At this point in time, the vegetarian tadpole transforms into a carnivorous froglet. The froglet is pretty much a frog with a tadpole tail. The froglet then leaves the water and begins to explore land. After a few weeks of living on land, the froglet's tail has completely disappeared, actually been consumed by the frog's body functions, so that the froglet is now a frog. The frog generally lives on land. Some frog species stay forever in water, but most frogs live on land after they mature to being froglets. The frog itself serves as an example of how closely life can integrate with nature. In many ways, the frog is an example form of life that shows how beautiful and natural a form of life can be.

The great degree of integration with nature unfortunately makes the frog very vulnerable to Homo sapiens sapiens' continued and systematic abuse and ruin of nature: The frog has declined a lot all over Earth during the past three or four decades. Ponds and lakes and rainforests being claimed for farming and cities account for most of the decline of the frogs. Entire frog species are becoming extinct every year!

The prolongued and systematic abuse of frogs by Homo sapiens sapiens, in the form of pithing of frogs, for the sake of teaching Homo sapiens sapiens off-spring how to care for life, acts as yet another example of the meaningless and uninhibited cruelty of Homo sapiens sapiens towards frogs. Together with the cruel abuse of frogs as a source of poison for arrow tips, these examples show the generally abusive and violating relationsship that Homo sapiens sapiens has to the frog, despite the frog being one of the most safe and peaceful forms of life on Earth. Have you ever heard of anyone being bitten by a frog? Have you ever heard of anyone contracting malaria from a frog bite? Have you ever heard of a frog attacking a little child? Have you ever heard of people fearing frogs unless due to frog fobia? No, no, no, and no. The only way a frog can become dangerous to a human is if that human insists on touching the frog and the frog is poisonous -- some frogs are tremendously poisonous, but nobody asked anybody to touch the frog.

The Frog Wonder

Frogs are actually ideal forms of life. In this chapter, we'll present the arguments and observations concerning the ideal nature of frogs.

As already stated on the front page: all toads are frogs so any text about frogs also applies to toads. Toads and frogs are thus equally wonderful forms of life. When reading, please mentally substitute the set 'frog' with the set 'frog and toad' -- or accept that all toads are frogs once and for all.

Please read this page as an objective study of the capabilities of the frog!

Overview

The frog is a wonderful creation. The frog continously serves God's Creation: The frog reliably and sustainedly fulfill his role as bug eater. The frog employs principles whose ideal value are nearly optimal. The frog has been an inhabitant of Earth for about 390 million years -- about 95 million years longer than the crocodile has been an inhabitant of Earth. As a result, the frog is a very sophisticated and well-developed form of life, which is clearly seen in many aspects of frog life, not limited to the gentle frog-to-frog caressing seen among some rainforest frogs where the female frog gently caresses the male frog's snout to indicate romantic interest in the male.

Background

Each form of life fits in its own slot in The Creation. Ideally, each form of life benefits and heals The Creation optimally in each their own way, and this way each contribute something special to The Creation. The idea being that The Creation is a complex inter-dependent scenario of mutually benefitting forms of life.

The frog fits nearly perfectly into The Creation. The frog is an almost perfect example of how to create a form of life. I know no better form of life than the frog: I admire and adore the frog. The frog is well-designed: Of all the forms of life on Earth, the frog comes out as a leader in terms of good and flexible design. It is no coincidence that the frog has been around for many millions of years! Despite being one of the safest animals on Earth, the frog has managed to stay in the game throughout the eons through huge changes to the Earth ecosystem. Compare to the other ancient forms of life: Crocodile, Shark, Insects, and Birds. Unlike birds, the frog is not simply a disguised dinosaur who has learned to fly! The frog is a genuine invention with a special evolutionary path, which has rendered the frog unique in nearly all his ways.

Nature of The Frog

As shown in the chapter on Frog Nature, the frog is a very Christian little fellow: The frog continously serves God all throughout his or her life. The frog is peaceful to all but the critters that the frog is supposed to reduce the number of (compare to a good police officer!). The frog is a fantastically safe experience for adults and children alike: Even poisonous frogs are gentle and safe by nature, and the rumours about toad poisonness grossly exaggerated (toads do not cause warts!).

Frog Integration with Nature

The frog integrates very tightly with nature. Think of this in terms of you being given the task: Design a Nature-compatible form of life. The frog is a marvel when it comes to close integration with nature. For example, the frog utilizes nature itself as the womb of the frog's off-spring. The frog utilizes nature itself as the kindergarden of the frog's off-spring. For example, the frog lives in many ecosystems. For example, there's swimming, jumping, and even flying frogs. For example, the frog hibernates by digging itself into the bottom of a pond, thereby using nature itself as a sleeping bag throughout winter. For example, many frog species by nature wanders a lot about and thereby interact with many more forms of nature than just the habitats of the frogs (frogs are explorers by nature!). For example, almost all frogs eat their own skin when they change skin; snakes, in comparison, simply leave their skin behind, thereby littering nature. For example, the frog reuses ("consumes") the tadpole tail in the process of growing legs, instead of simply discarding the tail, which would simply be littering nature (compare to many forms of life where a cocoon or feathers or fur is left, littering nature).

Frog Food Consumption

Frog are poikilothermic, meaning frogs get their body temperature from the surroundings rather than from internal heaters. Thus, frogs are ectoterms. In everyday language: Frogs are cold-blooded. Poikilothermic forms of life need to consume much less food than homeothermic (warm-blooded) forms of life, typically in the range 1/3rd to 1/10th. Thus the view that cold-blooded forms of life are seen as primitive is wrong! Cold-blooded forms of life demand much less of their environment than warm-blooded forms of life do. As a result, one square kilometer of land can support three to ten times as many cold-blooded individuals as warm-blooded individuals. Frogs are thus a very economic kind of life, who do not waste the resources of The Creation.

This means that if frogs ruled Earth, as a frog people using hi-tech technology, Earth would be able to sustain three to ten times as many frog persons as humans. That's a definite advantage for any civilized people!

Any region of land can support 3 to 10 times as many poikilothermic individuals (cold-blooded individuals) as homeothermic individuals. Similarly, any region of land can support about 100 times as many vegetarians (plant eaters) as carnivores (meat eaters). Imagine Earth was populated by vegetarian frogs: Earth would then be able to sustain about 50 trillion frog citizens in comparison to the current 6 billion human citizens currently living on Earth!

The figures are roughly:

Thus, if vegetarian Frogs populated Earth as the controlling master species, Earth could support up to 50 trillion citizens! Imagine Earth teeming with happy frog citizens living on Earth instead of humans: Big ponds everywhere!

This illustrates part of the wonder of the frog: The frog is a ingenoius creation which outperforms most other forms of life in nearly every aspect.

Frog Cannibalism

Many people are confused by the fact that frogs eat frogs, and therefore think that frogs are primitive and savage. In fact, frogs are very sophisticated, live a varied and rich life, changing form and role as the frog transcends being a juvinile and becomes an adult. There is a perfectly logical and sensible reason why frogs eat frogs: Frogs have enemies, but not enough enemies to outweigh the fact that many frogs spawn dozens, hundreds, or thousands of eggs, each of which becomes a tadpole, many of which becomes a frog. The frog population is basically regulating itself, a very advanced and civil trait of the frog population. In comparison, look at Homo sapiens sapiens on Earth: Overpopulated Earth, with crowds of Homo sapiens sapiens everywhere. If Homo sapiens sapiens were as advanced as frogs, Homo sapiens sapiens would regulate itself, probably without resorting to cannibalism. Despite its alleged advanced behavior and nature, Homo sapiens sapiens is crowding the entire planet Earth. Any species that crowds displays a symptom of imbalance: Something is wrong, something needs to be straightened up. Humanity should really learn to regulate themselves! To find the solution, humanity could look at the frogs and learn that it is the responsibility of humankind to regulate humankind, as humankind has too few enemies, no matter what methods and procedures are used to accomplish the goal of a well-regulated species.

You should not think negatively of frogs, not even because of the cannibalistic behavior: Frogs kills gently and frogs are actually very fair in not putting themselves over other forms of life: To a frog anybody the right size is a candidate to be the next meal, whether frog or not frog, which makes the frog people ideally fair. See frog cannibalism as an advanced trait, not as a primitive trait: The frogs actually solve the problem of overpopulation and frogs can be said to be the perfect equal rights people: In frog world, anybody has got the right to be eaten and there is not the least discrimination when picking food. Compare this to humans: In human world, pretty much only humans have got rights -- animals are simply the unfortunate many who are brutalized and victimized in thousands of ways. A frog never imprisons anybody, a frog never pithes anybody, a frog never dissects anybody, a frog never performs experiments on anybody, a frog simply eats or not eats, a frog never leaves smaller cousins to starve in the gutter (they get eaten). The frog rules are beautiful, efficient, fair, and simple: Divine!

Thus frog cannibalism is actually a wonder, not a horror: Frog cannibalism regulates the species of the frogs so that not too many frogs survive. Through frog cannibalism, frogs achieve a healthy population without harmful crowding. Frogs regulate themselves, making frogs a very advanced and wonderful species. In itself, this additional wonder of the frogs, is no big surprise: The frogs have been around for unfathomable long time; long, long before Man arose, frog was around. As a result, frog ways are proven and tested ways that work.

Remember: Frogs eat frogs to regulate frog numbers.
(This could be rephrased to: Frogs are nature compatible!)

The Nature of The Frog

The frog is beautiful, careful, gentle, innocent, intelligent, and peaceful. In this chapter you'll be given proof of this statement.

Frog Nature

Few have taken the time to look closely at the nature of the frog. If you sit back and contemplate the frog considering all that you can possibly know about the frog, you will discover the traits described here.

The Frog Is Beautiful

The frog is obviously beautiful. The form of the frog is sleek and dynamic. Even toads, traditionally seen as ugly, have got beautiful head shapes:

The colors of the frog are often stunning in their beauty. Try looking at the Frog Cutie in the Gallery: Isn't that deep green color beautiful? Aren't the red eyes beautiful and artistically complementing the body color of the frog? Yes, indeed they are. Any number of pictures of colorful frogs speak for themselves. Q.E.D.

The Frog Is Careful

Try watching the frog as it moves about. You will notice that the frog very much heeds its surroundings. If you pick up a frog, you'll notice how much the frog coorporates with you. This coorporation proves that the frog is careful of his or her surroundings. Q.E.D.

The Frog Is Gentle

If you hold a frog (see Appendix: Holding A Frog for instructions) you will notice that the frog neither attacks you nor bites you. You will notice that the frog is completely safe to you, no matter how you hold the frog (please try to hold the frog gently: the frog depends entirely on your gentleness and mercy!).

There exist a few frog species, such as the bullfrog, which are not precisely gentle, but rather quite savage. The vast majority of frogs are, however, very gentle little guys. Q.E.D.

The Frog Is Innocent

Frogs are innocent beings. Innocent meaning: Expecting no evil. As soon as the frog has figured out that you are not going to eat him, he coorperates naturally with you, gives your fingers a gentle squeeze to get to a more comfortable position, climbs a bit higher up to sit more comfortably, sits patiently while you study him or talks about him. Just like an innocent child, the frog coorporates without doing any harm. Q.E.D.

The Frog Is Intelligent

Frogs accomplish many complex tasks. For example, the female frog, of some frog species, seduces the male frog (using body language and her gentle touch!). For example, some frog species carry their babies on their back, accomplishing the complex task of bringing the babies (tadpoles) to a suitable habitat, namely a pool of water. This despite the frog himself or herself living on land! Some species of frogs even feed their tadpoles, routinely checking back to see if each tadpole is doing well in each their own pool. If the female frog judges that food is scarce, she deposits an unfertilized egg for the tadpole to eat. Such a decision cannot be a matter of instinct -- to do so the frog has to evaluate the parameters of the surroundings! Instinct is activity done blindly without any evaluation of the circumstances.

Another place where you can see the obvious intelligence of frogs are toads: Try holding a toad, using the instructions in Appendix: Holding A Frog, in your hand and the toad will push and shove to get comfortable: The toad meaningfully interacts with the surroundings. In fact, the frog cooperates with the human that holds him in a manner that is almost never seen elsewhere among animals! Q.E.D.

The Frog Is Peaceful

A frog very rarely attacks, unless to eat. We must all eat, and the steak you had the other day actually required that a cow was attacked and killed. If frogs get into a disagreement so strong that they start fighting, some frog species fight by inflating their throat bag prior to jumping onto the other frog, that way making sure that nobody gets harmed, and providing a hilarious spectacle. Some frog species do jump onto each other, probably causing some pain in the attack. However, the vast majority of frog species are non-violent and don't even fight amongst themselves. Q.E.D.

Experiencing The Frog

The best proof of all is experience: Your own experience of the frog. By picking up a frog, you can easily feel the nature of the frog. You will notice that the frog is not slimy: The frog is cool to the touch, but not slimy. Even if the frog is wet, the frog is not slimy. Prior to holding the frog, you must read the Appendix: Holding A Frog.

1. The frog is very scared of you (you may notice his heart racing wildly!)
2. The frog does not attack you (the frog does not even defend itself).
3. The frog gently tries to make the best of the situation.
4. You feel perfectly safe from the frog (this is important!).

Overall, the experience of holding a frog proves the nature of the frog:

Notice how safe you feel. The frog emits nothing but gentleness and peace, even though the frog believes itself to be dead in an instant. The frog is scared to death from fear of you, as you are perhaps a hundred times bigger than the frog, and in the frog world the big ones normally eat the smaller ones.

Please refrain from touching frogs. But, if experiencing the wonder of the frog yourself is what it takes to convince you that frogs are wonders, it is a small price to pay for the frogs, insofar as you do not harm the little frog while learning about the frog. Keep the memory with you forever.

Views On The Frog

There are many views on the frog. Unfortunately, most views of the frog are basically hostile to the frog. Here we present some right views on frogs and some wrong views on frogs, so that you can spot wrongs views and teach a right view.

Rigth View: A Tiny Little Person (Frog Antropomorphist)

Each frog is an intelligent living person with his or her own desires and hopes. The frog acts sentiently, exploring the surroundings he or she lives in. The frog likes peace and safety. The frog can get curious about something (often seen with frogs living in captivity, as these frogs are standing on their rear legs looking out from the aquarium, studying the outside world for long periods of time, something which indicates boredom AND intelligence). The frog can feel fear, happiness, hope, joy, misery, pain, and all the other feelings that we can all feel. The frog gets bored if kept imprisoned in a tiny enclosure without entertaining surroundings, for instance in an empty tank. The frog comprehends and sees the surroundings, which makes the frog aware of what is going on, which makes the frog a sentient participant in the circumstances the frog is in.

The Frog Antropomorphist view is well illustrated by this wonderful picture:

This picture so clearly illustrates the intelligence of the frog: Look at the picture and try to see the frogs' mood. Try to notice that the frog is gently sitting, looking as much as the photographer as the photographer is looking at the frog. The frog is aware of the surroundings. Doesn't the frog look intelligent? Would it not sadden you to pithe and dissect the frog on the picture? Would it not sadden you if somebody took a knife and cut the head off that frog? Please notice how tiny the frog is: How gigantic the leaf and the moss are. Studying the moss gives you a sense of how tiny the frog is; notice how the moss appears as a small bush if you look at it from the scale of the frog. Frogs thus see the world much differently from us: to the frogs, tiny details in our lives can be gigantic facts of their life.

Frogsite aims to make this view popular so that the frog becomes loved and respected for being the wonder that the frog literally is: God surely loves the frog, which is evident from the many gifts that He has granted the frog!

At Frogsite, we especially hope that the world will open its eyes to the intelligence of the frog: The world is currently violating the frog over and over in many ways, including pithing, dissection, and farming on former frog lands. If everybody knew that the frog is an intelligent little guy, everybody would want to protect and save the frog.

Right View: A Wonder of Nature (Frog Lover)

The right view of the frog is, unfortunately, pretty rare as very few people take the time to actually get to know the frog. The frog is a beautiful, careful, gentle, intelligent, and peaceful wonder of nature. The frog is a beautiful as the colors of the frog are often stunning in their beauty, greatly excelling what human artists can think up when making paintings. The frog is careful as the frog goes to great lenghts to carefully cooperate with the human that holds him. The frog is gentle to the touch, the gentle touch itself revealing the nature of the frog. The frog is intelligent as the frog acts intelligently in many complex scenarios. The frog is peaceful as he only attacks to eat, something we all must do (cows are slaughtered too, you know; your steak requires that a cow is murdered!). Overall, the frog is a marvellous masterpiece of creation: the frog is amphibious and thus flexible in its habitats as the frog is capable of living on land, in water, and even in trees. The frog actually outperforms man in the number of habitats that the frog can live in without technological support; Both frog and man can live on land. Man cannot live in a lake, but the frog can live in a lake. Man cannot live in a tree, but the frog can live in a tree. The frog can even survive being frozen down! After the frog thaws, the frog walks on as if nothing happened.

Wrong View: Uninteresting Little Creature (Frog Ignorant)

This view is shared by many, most of whom have never taken the time to learn about the frog. If you have only once seen two frogs battling it out with their vocal bags inflated, you have seen a marvellous display of peaceful combat between two frogs: nobody can get harmed, and yet the frogs manage to fight it out between themselves. If you have only once seen the frog intelligently hide itself from an attacking giant bat, being 15 times the size of the frog, you have found a deep love and respect for the frog bravely surviving a violent onslaught. If you know a Frog Ignorant, please point him or her to this page!

Wrong View: Cold-Blooded Robot (Frog Machinist)

The view that the frog is a cold-blooded little robot is, unfortunately, very common and wide-spread. This view gives the frog no justice, and is very hostile to the frog as this view makes it easy to dismiss the frog rather than helping the frog. This view is probably the result of the general human tendency to dismiss that which we do not understand. I wish everybody had the opportunity to view the frog-hides-for-bat movie footage that I once saw on Animal Planet, where a frog-eating bat attempts to catch a tiny frog which hides underneath a leaf. The frog intelligently chooses to freeze motion and sit tight until the bat is gone. Imagine that: Being a tiny frog and being assaulted by a bat 15 times bigger! People who has the Frog Machinist view should see the footage of the bat attacking the frog to instantly see just how intelligent frogs are. Frogs are not machines, frogs are living little persons! The frog, as all of us, wants to live in peace and harmony. Unlike so many other forms of life on Earth, the frog is a completely safe experience for most forms of life (who refrain from attacking the frog): Only the annoying bugs that we all loathe need to fear the frog! If you know a Frog Machinist, please point him or her to this page!

Wrong View: Disgusting Slimy Little Thingy (Frog Hater)

The view that the frog is a slimy little thingy is a very hostile and very simple view, which stems entirely from no knowledge and only prejudices about the frog. The frog is not disgusting, but beautiful, gentle and peaceful. The frog is not normally slimy, but has a clean and a bit wet skin. You could argue that the frog is one of the cleanest forms of life on Earth as the frog routinely bathes dozens of times a day! If you take the time to look at different frog pictures on Frogsite, or elsewhere (simply follow some of the links in our Links section), you will see that the frog is one of the most beautiful creations of Earth. The colors of the frog are so stunningly beautiful that human artists rarely can create anything which excels these colors. Looking intelligently at it, the frog is a brilliant peace of art: the frog is an amphibian which can live in water, on land, and even in trees. The frog is adaptible and versatile. The personality of the frog is generally gentle, peaceful and friendly. If you know a Frog Hater, please point him or her to this page!

Wrong View: Dangerous Little Creature (Frog Fobist)

The view that the frog is a dangerous little creature is fortunately very rare. Only very few people suffer from a fobia of (fear of) frogs. But such people do exist! Such people should try holding a frog and come to the realization that the frog is completely gentle, harmless, and peaceful. If you know a Frog Fobist, please point him or her to this page.

The Hope of The Frog

Contrary to what most people believe, frogs actually do hope.

The Wish

What is the The Wish of a frog? Most of all probably a good snack. However, frogs are complicated little beings who have got many worries. For instance, frogs are hoping for many things throughout their lives:

1. Safety (that nobody hunts or picks up the frog).
2. Peace (not having to worry about enemies all the time).
3. Nice weather (in bad weather, the frog hides and awaits better times).
4. A healthy habitat (frogs don't like getting poisoned and sick).
5. A good snack walking right by (God is loving, it happens all the time).
6. Not getting into a fight (frogs occasionally do fight with each other).
7. Finding a wealthy and wonderful place to live (frogs migrate, you know).
8. A nice spouse (why else do you think frogs work so hard to mate?).
9. A suitable place to mate and lay eggs.
10. Healthy off-spring (some frogs really do care about their off-spring!).
11. Not ending up squashed (when crossing a busy road).
12. Not getting pithed and dissected (see the Anti-Pithing page).
13. Not dying (this is the great bummer until Paradise).
14. Freedom (especially frogs in captivity hope for freedom).

And so on. The point here being that frogs have hopes, making frogs little people that should be treated as such, not as machines. Most humans seem to be seeing frogs as simple biological machines: This amounts to seeing your four year old daughter as a simple biological machine. Frogs probably have a somewhat simple world view, due to lack of education, but frogs have got hopes and worries! Please try to see the consequences of no education whatsoever: How would you be, if you never ever had attended school, not even for a single day? You would have a somewhat simple world view, you would be incredibly naive, but you would still have lots of feelings and hopes.

You may think I am simply making this up, but I am not. I am only trying to see the frog as a real person with anxieties, fears, hopes, and worries: Somebody, not something! You can say I am extracting from the obvious: That which obviously applies to frogs same as to any of us.

The Intelligence of The Frog

Intelligence is almost completely misunderstood on Earth. Intelligence does not depend upon the brain size. The brain size decides the total capacity of the intelligence, i.e. how large models the brain can make, but the brain size does not decide the power of the brain (the ability of the brain to pick wisely). Frogs are much better at picking wisely for their situation than we humans are. Similarly, humans are much better at picking for our situation than frogs are. The point here being that a frog is not dumb just because the frog is a cold-blooded little being with a small brain. The frog is actually very intelligent, albeit not as capable as humans are to envision complex models. But for stuff that the frog understands perfectly well, such as everyday decisions on whether to bite that bug or not to bite that bug, and the occasional big decision such as whether to migrate or not migrate, the frog is as intelligent as we humans are. The saddest part about humans's comprehension of frogs is that we are mostly completely missing the deep intelligence of the frogs. Try gently holding up a frog, after having read the instructions in Appendix: Holding A Frog, and you will learn the consequence of the deep intelligence of the frog very strongly: The frog does not attack you; the frog is intelligent enough to know that attacking you would only increase the danger towards himself. Had you been a 1 cm beetle, the frog would perhaps have attacked. But, the frog gently and peacefully refrains from attacking somebody 200 times his or her size, thereby showing much more intelligence than snakes and most other forms of life on Earth. You can even go as far as to say that the frog reacts to the situation with friendship. Try holding a frog sometime, adhering to the instructions given in Appendix: Holding A Frog, and you'll see what I mean: Many frogs simply focus on making their situation comfortable, while they're resting in your palm: The perfect innocent-little-guy reaction! This is probably the most intelligent choice the frog can possibly make: Freaking out and frantically trying to escape only gives the frog a tighter squeeze. Settling in, accepting the temporary situation (with a perfectly innocent heart), making the situation comfortable is the optimum reaction.

If you study frogs closely, you will see many signs that frogs are very intelligent:

1. Frogs in captivity waves to the humans imprisoning them (just study the way frogs use their hands, and you'll see that they're very intelligent).
2. Some frogs in captivity are known to be escape artists, escaping over and over despite the seemingly "no chance of escape" situation (telling us humans that frogs much prefer to live in the wild, free of captivity, and telling us humans that frogs in captivity really long for freedom!).
3. Frogs in a tank often leans on the tank wall (the glass). This illustrates that the frog knows that the tank wall is strong enough to carry the weight of that frog.
4. A frog held enclosed in a hand will gently and insistingly attempt to make his or her situation comfortable by climbing and squeezing until he or she is in a comfortable physical position (compare to an unintelligent earth worm that simply wriggles until free again or a clam simply shutting itself, simply rejecting the situation, or to a mouse that panicky tries to flee: the frog cooperates and interoperates!).
5. Frogs in captivity are normally cooperating; only trying so much to escape (those frogs loving to escape, such as African Clawed Frog, probably really needs a lot more space such as 4 m2.)
6. The frog actually manages all of the complex challenges an amphibian is faced with: the frog manages to live in water, on land, and even to return to water when it is time to mate.
7. Frogs in nature manages to find a suitable breeding pond despite living on land.

Frogs who scream just prior to being pithed are (very very sadly) fully aware of what is going to happen to them, and are expressing in the strongest possible manner that they vehemently disagree with the action about to take place. Please try to fathom that the frog is intelligent enough to know that somebody is about to cut into him or her, and is screaming "NOOOO, I WILL NOT!". This coming from a very gentle and peaceful little creature that would never ever harm you only makes the pithing process traumatic to discuss. I nearly cry for all those frogs being pithed every year! Try to think of a single frog, a little friendly, gentle, intelligent, and peaceful little creature who depends 100 percent on your mercy. The frog is aware what is about to happen to him, and he cannot fathom why you would do that to him: eating for a living is different, the frog way of killing prey is actually very gentle as the prey is strangled quickly without suffering any pain. The frog panicks and screams "NOOOO, I WILL NOT!", as a little child completely rejecting some unreasonable idea by his or her parents. Try to understand that the frog has feelings and intelligence! The frog is aware of what is about to happen. Try to think of how you would react if somebody were to shove a knife down your troat to cut your neck from the inside and out!

Please help me rid the world of pithing and dissection of frogs! Contact some local politicians and see if they can effect legislation against pithing and dissection of frogs -- whether live or dead. Start a big fuss in your country to completely end all forms of pithing and dissection of frogs! Do something!

The unintelligent ones are the humans who assume that frogs are without intelligence. Frogs are highly intelligent! Study the frogs, especially the Poison Dart frogs, and see for yourself!

Understanding Frog Intelligence

The key to understanding frog intelligence is that you try to imagine yourself being the frog. Think in terms of a little person who always sees the world in frog perspective. To such a little person, a hiding place behind a toilet may seem very exciting and wonderful (peaceful and safe) -- a safe haven among all the confusing stuff: No big giants walking about. To such a little person, humans are giants, albeit normally peaceful giants, who occasionally lift up the frog from the tank, and perhaps even put the frog on the bed. To the frog, the humans are living walking and talking gods who occasionally interfer in the life of the frog. Frogs in captivity generally expect to be treated nicely, as most frogs in captivity are being treated nicely. Think in terms of a little innocent being who sees wonders almost everywhere, as everything in the frog world is a gigantic puzzle. For instance, how do you think a frog feels about a bed? Gigantic, obscure unedible thingy which feels rather nice to the touch. To the frog, the creation of the bed is an utter mystery, which the frog never expects to get any understanding of. To the frog, the bed simply is there. The bed is as much part of the world as the plants in the frogs' tank are. Somebody created the bed and the plant, but the frog is limited to only seeing that the bed and the plant have already been created. Thus, the frog is sort of the eternal visitor -- always exploring the world without having control of the world to change it. To the frog, the world is a mystery-wonder: Something that simply is, for which no explanation exists of how it came to be (although I expect that frogs actually do have a notion of God: probably seen as a giant frog). Despite this, the frog interacts with the world in a manner that helps the world: The frog reduces the number of bugs, thus making the world a more hospitable place for most. Try to imagine the frog as a little explorative person who wonders loudly in his mind "What's behind that bed [thing]?", and "How do I get out of here?". The fact that the frog is rich in his behavior shows that the frog is intelligent. The frog is not merely flopping about a bit, until taken back into the tank. The frog is actually trying to find a good safe hiding place, inside your home, a process that requires evaluation and decisions, and manages to do so remarkably well: Well enough that some frog owners are incapable of finding their escaped frog for three or six months! Try reading Frog Escape Stories for a completely convincing account of just how clever frogs are: over and over again, these frogs manage to escape, and often to remain hidden for months! I don't want to upset you frog pet holders, but I am personally convinced that frogs are much happier in nature than in captivity; at least that is the impression I get from reading about the frogs' many frantic escapes.

Doubting Frog Intelligence

Some may ask: If frogs are so intelligent, then how come frogs cross roads full of traffic? The answer is pretty simple: Lack of education. Do you remember when you were a little 2-3 year old child? Did you then think of dangers on the road? Nay, not. Since then, your parents have taught you that roads are dangerous to cross, otherwise you would wade across as if nothing could ever happen (only a small fraction of us humans actually get the experience that roads are dangerous). Nobody has taught the frog about roads, hence the frog assumes the road is safe to cross -- as is generally the rule of travelling in nature: Nothing hits you, the road is clear. After all, most roads appear pretty safe late at night when the frog is crossing; the frog has no way of knowing that a car will approach with an unfathomably fast pace of 60 kilometers per hour: To the frog anything travelling at 60 kilometers per hour is as fast as a lightning striking. The frog is used to slow moving animals such as himself, so seeing an empty road leads the frog to believe that the road is safe to cross. Being innocent, the frog assumes that even busy roads won't harm the frog -- after all, nothing has yet harmed the frog so why would a busy road harm the frog? An assumption you would make too, if you were without education -- and your surroundings generally matched that expectation.

A Clear Sign of Frog Intelligence

Remember: All toads are frogs, but not all frogs are toads. So when you are reading about frogs, you are also reading about toads. When you are reading about toads, you're generally also reading about frogs.

One web page reports:

"When Toad Night is over, it is really over. Apparently the toads are quite exhausted after one or two nights of revelry. The next night brings absolute and total silence. Not a toad can be heard in or around the pond. In fact, it may be several weeks before we see or hear any toads."

Isn't this a clear sign of toad intelligence? The toads know when to sing and when to shut up. Imagine a toad being late for the Toad Night (the toad mating night), arriving and finding the scene empty. What does he do? Does he mechanically sit there and sing all night, hoping to attract a female? No, he keeps quiet and walks off again. That's intelligence!

Frog Plans

I suspect the point, that I am trying over and over to relay to you, is this: Frogs have plans! Look at this picture of a female toad carrying a male toad:

She is crossing a road carrying him. She has got a plan! She is purposefully going somewhere! Perhaps to a nearby pond to lay her eggs and have him fertilize the eggs. That's part of what I mean by saying Frogs are intelligent: Frogs plan and accomplish their plans. A machine does not plan. I hate the Frog Machinist view. Try to think this through very carefully: If frogs plan, aren't frog then people? The frog people is ancient and lives remarkably well in many settings: In my eyes there's absolutely no doubt that frogs are little people! Similar to the natives of Africa and Australia: living in a nature compatible manner, but yet capable of planning and worrying, and probably even worshipping God ("It").

On a side note: A wonderful change in the world is that more and more are building Frog Tunnels: Special tunnels underneath busy roads, tunnels which are made so that approaching frogs are guided into using the tunnel, making it possible for even uneducated frogs to cross the road completely safely. Obviously, the she toad on the picture did not have a tunnel, so she is in grave danger while crossing the road. I am pretty certain, though, that we can rely on the photographer to have ensured that the two toads got across safely.

Try examing the picture: Take the picture into your mind, discover the implications of the picture. She has a plan! She is intelligent! She is a little person whom we should protect! See the female toad as a purposeful being who has got plans which does not harm the world. Compare to most human plans: Most human plans harms the world one way or another.

Proof of The Intelligent Frog

I've provided some proof of the high intelligence of the frog on this page, but here's a small quote off www.allaboutfrogs.org/info/species/clawed.html:

"This setup would probably have been just fine for dwarf frogs, but the clawed frog is more likely to be "hoppity" and managed to jump through a small opening in the top (which I think was supposed to be for air filters and heaters etc.) and it hopped all the way out of her bedroom, all the way down the stairs, all the way to the living room, where it stuck itself to a window and dried up. It was the saddest, most pathetic thing you ever saw ...so close to freedom and yet so far!"

This frog actually managed a marvellous feat of escaping almost to freedom. To fully realize what feat the frog accomplished, try to think of yourself as a 7 centimeter tall figure just having escaped the prison: You are moving about in a house which you don't know, you are looking for a way out, you are among many very technological items, such as doors and furniture, and you are intent on escaping once and for all. The frog finally succumbed to a window: The frog was able to see the outside through the window, but could not figure out how to get past the window: Something which is easily explainable as there is no way past the window. Imagine the little frog guy lying there, looking out at freedom, only wanting to be a free frog, then slowly expiring out of drying up. Poor frog! (many African Clawed Frog owners experience something similar: The African Clawed Frog is very intelligent and therefore a real escape artist).

The point here being that you should try to view the story from frog perspective: Try to get a feeling of the frog's escape route and the decisions that the frog made along the way while escaping. So very sad that such an intelligent little guy ended up drying up and dying!

Frogs are incredibly intelligent compared to what you think of them! Get into your mind that having no education affects your choices permanently. If you're in doubt about this, look at 3rd world countries: The people of such countries are most often also very naive and make everyday choices that may seem simple to more educated people. The frog does not go to school!

Try noticing where people find their escaped African Claw Frogs -- and you'll see that the frog generally tries very intelligently to get out of THE house, proving that the frog has got a clear sense that he or she is INSIDE and that he or she wants to go OUTSIDE.

Try this experiement: Imagine yourself having been raised to live in a small tank among 60 meter tall giants, who've raised you and never gave you a chance to live a free life: Would you wonder about escaping? Would you? Why do you think that African Clawed Frogs are such escape artists? Because they wonder about freedom: NOTICE the word 'wonder' - the frogs do wonder, the frogs are intelligent enough to wonder, and yet the frogs are most commonly treated as if small biological machines. Try seeing the horror and trauma of that... Homo sapiens sapiens is, in ways, treating frogs worse than we treated the human slaves of the previous centuries: The slaves never faced getting pithed. Imagine yourself having been bred and raised to live in a small enclosure. All of your life, you've lived peacefully and nobody has harmed you the least. Then, suddenly, some day the keepers (the giants) lift you up and show you a giant instrument, a knife, and steers this instrument towards your head with the intent of severing your spine from the inside of your head and out. What would you do? SCREAM. What does the frog do? SCREAM. Think it over, learn, and try not to cry. We humans are so evil to the frogs, because we humans are so ignorant. We humans pride ourselves that we comprehend so much. In fact, we are so ignorant and savage that we should utterly be rejecting to influence the world until such a time that we do see Life -- and how wonderful Life is: Each little frog is a wonder on his own. A little person who lives, dreams, explores, hopes, and wonders. A little person that we humans should fight for and protect in each and every way that we can.

Seeing The Frog Fully

Imagine this:
A frog can be happy. And, a frog can be sad. A frog can be innocently looking upon the world with curiosity. A frog can be annoyed. A frog can be eager. A frog can be cautious. A frog can be nervous. A frog can be panicky. A frog can be in any of the moods that you can be in. Not having a complex language does not mean that you don't have any feelings or moods; on the contrary, not having a complex language most frequently means you're much more aware of your feelings as you are not being blinded by the abstraction of the language.

The Frog People

Unlike what you think, frogs are actually a people.

The Frog Person

Most people suffer from the "Planets of The Apes" syndrome: They are not willing to acknowledge that forms of life other than humans are aware, intelligent, and sentient. It is my firm belief that each frog has a personality. Due to the lack of education, the personality of each frog is not very complex nor very rich. But, each frog has his or her own individual ideas, speculations, suspicions, wonders, and worries. Each frog wonders what is behind the next bush. Each frog looks excitedly at the new pond that he or she finds. Each frog has some sort of philosophy about the world, albeit probably formed mostly by the raw fact of nature: Survive or die. The point here being that a frog is a living being, a little person with a body form not entirely identical to ours (although I strongly suspect that God was inspired to make the beautiful female legs from the look of frog legs): A little person who wonders about being alive, just like you and I. Frogs think up complex solutions (see the escape stories), frogs clearly wonder what's beyond the horizon since frogs migrate from pond to pond, and frogs solve very complex tasks. Frogs are exciting and intelligent small creatures that deserve to be cared for and protected by us! If you ask me, the whole idea about "instincts" (animals being pre-programmed biologic robots) is bullocks and madness, heavily impairing our ability to see the wonder of life in general. The world should rethink its view of the animal kingdom in terms of What would I do with such a physical form and no language?. Think of frogs as little persons! Now perhaps you can see why I am so deeply saddened by pithing of frogs: A little innocent frog person having a knife or a needle stuck into his or her brain so that he or she cannot react while being dissected alive: A horrorfying and traumatic experience for the frog and those sensible enough to actually feel for the frog. The mere fact that we differentiate life in two categories: Humans and animals, shows clearly that our basic assumptions are flawed with the "Planets of The Apes" syndrome!

To comprehend that a frog is actually a person, consider this complex and real scenario: The Blue Poison-Dart (BPD) frog, Dendrobates azureus, raising his off-spring: The male and the female BPD frog mates, and the female BPD frog lays 5-10 eggs in the male's territory, which the male then defends vigorously (please notice that the male frog DEFENDS his off-spring, contrary to what most believe about frogs). After 14-18 days, the eggs develop into tadpoles, which the male frog carries on his back. The male then faces the task of depositing the off-spring in a suitable location. The male himself lives on dry land and does not live in water: The tadpoles must be deposited in water, an element now mostly alien to the male frog. The male frog then meticously and patiently locates a suitable location for the tadpoles to live. Sometimes he climbs 5 meters (about 100 times his own size, amounting to your climbing 175 meters up into a tree) high up in a tree to deposit the tadpoles in a water-filled hole in the tree. This task is awesome! Imagine yourself having to find a suitable pool to deposit your baby for your baby to grow to adulthood! The little man, the frog male, accomplishes this task without any formal education, even without the aid of any peer. He all alone accomplishes the task, even including the part about entering into the water to allow his babies to swim off his back and start their life as tadpoles in water. And, this is not all: Some frog species lets the female carry the tadpoles to a water hole. When she has done that, she routinely checks back to each tadpole to ensure that the tadpole has enough food. If she feels that the tadpole has inadequate food, she once again enters the water and this time deposits an unfertilized egg for the tadpole to eat! These procedures being so complex that intelligence simply is a prerequisite! Frogs are intelligent little people, not dumb robots!

Try to imagine yourself in a landscape with 10 kilometers tall trees all around you. You are standing on the ground with your baby on your back. Imagine that you need to find a pool to deposit your baby in so that your baby can grow to adulthood. You don't know the area, you have only been living on the ground, never before have you climbed high up on a tree. You know the task and you must accomplish the task -- otherwise your baby dies! Doesn't that sound daunting to you? Imagine the task! Imagine the task that the frog, which you have probably considered unintelligent up until now, accomplishes! The frog is doing an AWESOME job! You probably wouldn't undertake such a task unless you had been trained to do so!

I simply love thinking of frogs as real people -- doing so shows you REALITY. You should try it yourself: Imagine the cute frog female and the cute frog mate who meet each other. "She then initiates courtship by stroking the male's snout and back and follows him to a secluded spot to mate and lay eggs." (quoted from Blue Poison Dart Frog). Did you ever suspect that the she frog strokes the male to initiate courtship? To me, that sounds as intelligent and personal behavior, something that only people would do. They're two strangers just meeting for the first time. She wants to have children. How does she communicate this? By stroking the male. Beautiful, clear, and precise language! She shows what she wants. If only human females did this! After that, the male takes responsibility for the upbringing of the children. He stays around and defends the eggs, and even keeps the eggs wet, until the eggs develop into tadpoles, at which time he ensures the tadpoles are moved to a pool of some sort. Some frog species even feed their own tadpoles after they have deposited the tadpoles in a suitable pool.

Does this sound like a robot or an intelligent person? Be honest! Frogs are little persons. Frogs are wonders: Frogs are beautiful and complicated in their ways. We're not talking about a machine that replicates mechanically. We are talking about a parent who looks after his or her children, a caring parent who takes on a great task and accomplishes that task -- without any formal training.

Try to think all of this through until you've grasped that you need to see each frog as an individual with complex behavior which is intelligently adapted to the situation. Repeat this a few times, say it out loud:

When you've understood this crucial point about frogs, you've understood the horror and tragedy of Frog Pithing and Dissection!

Frogs are, I believe, so intelligent that frogs can wonder about issues. A proof of this is that the frog in captivity simply must be wondering about escaping and living in freedom: Otherwise you would not have dozens and dozens of escape stories of frogs having escaped against all odds into temporary freedom or unfortunate death in the attempt: These frogs are escaping with the intent and energy of a prisoner sentenced to 50 years in Alcatraz! Try reading the frog escape stories on members.aol.com/sirchin/escape.htm, and you should develop some sense that the frogs really intentionally are escaping for a reason: They want freedom. To escape as frantically as these frogs do, these frogs simply must be WONDERING about it all: Freedom, how to get out, [I will be] much happier outside, [I must] out of [the] house, and so on. The biggest revelation that I have been given is that frogs are thinking, albeit with a much simpler language than we humans have. However, the frogs are clearly capable of making complex thoughts such as "If I squeeze through that hole I will get out of this cage, then I can attempt to escape the house." Read the escape stories, and you will see that many of these frogs immediately head for "out of the house", whatever it takes to get there.

Do all frogs a favor, try imagining frogs thinking about issues. Issues such as where the Sun goes when it goes up, and issues such as "how do I get out of this bigger box [the house]?" Frogs in nature sometimes even observe the humans that observe the frogs: The frog does not blindly escape and wait for you to leave, sometimes the frog returns and starts observing you. What do you think the frog thinks while observing the human observing it? Man observing frog observing man...

Current human philosophy is pretty much completely blind to the awesome tasks that animals accomplish during their everyday life, even without any formal education. This indicates that the animals are intelligent. As the frog is intelligent, so is the bird that builds a complicated home hanging from a branch: The bird has to make MANY intelligent decisions to build that home. Instincts alone cannot explain the uncanny ability that many animals have in picking a good-enough path. What Earth needs most of all, in the realm of philosophy and science, is recognition that animals are intelligent, much more than most of us imagines, and that animals need to be recognized as intelligent people of the Earth, albeit without school systems and tax authorities. Animals need to be recognized as people with full people's rights!

Torture of Frogs

Many Biology classes centers around torturing frogs.

Pithing

Pithing, see Frog Pith and Preparation for more information, is the barbaric and cruel act of rendering a frog so brain-damaged that the frog supposedly cannot feel the cruel acts done against the live frog. Pithing renders the frog permanently and severely damaged, without actually killing the frog. The frog is highly alive while being cut open piece by piece -- the heart is pumping while the frog is cut apart. During Biology classes, students are asked to pithe and dissect live frogs. If the student, who is completely new to pithing frogs, fails in his or her assignment of pithing the frog, the frog faces one of the most traumatic deaths possible as the frog is cut open and dissected while fully alive. Ask yourself: What are the chances of failing your first operation? Imagine yourself asked to perform heart transplant. How well do you think you would handle that? Now compare to pithing the frog: Pithing a frog is a surgical procedure, which aims to render the frog unable to feel pain. No statistics exists, but you can rely on many frogs being pithed inappropriately, afterwards being dissected (cut to pieces) while the frog is battling to get free, writhering, or screaming in agony, leaving the frogs to suffer. For this reason, frog pithing should be abolished completely forever! Unlike what many think, frogs actually do feel pain exactly the same as you and me. Recent research has proven this already in the case of fish, and it is only a matter of time before some scientist documents the obvious: frogs feel pain just the same as you and I!

Successful pithing renders the frog unable to feel pain. Up until the moment that the frog has been pithed successfully, however, the frog is completely at the mercy of the untrained hands that performs the pithing and dissection procedures. The reports of frogs screaming, something which frogs only do if very seriously distressed, clearly tells a story of a very scared frog that tries to avoid being abused and killed. One web page reports:

"I don't believe that animals have no feelings," Dr. Smith said. "I witnessed male frogs scream when scissor blades were put into their mouths in order to sever their heads."

How would you feel about having scissor blades put into your mouth to have your head severed?

Another page, the page given above as Frog Pith and Preparation, states:

"NOTICE: The frog may crouch, jump, or even make noise, but it is not in pain. These actions are neural reflexes controlled via motor senses in the spinal cord, not brain functions."

Obviously, this is incorrect and a scientific lie: If the frog did not feel a thing, the frog would not move and neither make noise! The symptoms clearly indicate that the frog has been inadequately pithed, or even that pithing never renders the frog unable to feel pain (!), and now is suffering a very painful procedure only comparable to the Chinese method of torture known as "Death by Thousand Cuts" -- the frog is literally screaming in pain from being cut open while still alive, and yet science professors are dismissing this as "neural reflexes".

The fact that the pithed frogs are screaming in pain and trying to jump away prior to being pithed shows clearly that the frog is capable of fearing the instrument about to be used to pithe the frog -- the frog is raging with terror over what might happen to the frog (frogs only scream when absolutely terrorized with fear). To comprehend the situation of the frog being dissected, imagine yourself having your spinal chord severed so that you are unable to move, lying on your back with pins through your arms while you are experiencing and observing how somebody cuts you open, makes a slice through the skin of your stomack, and starts to unveil your inner organs -- all while you are breathing and feeling what happens to you. Then think about this whole procedure done to "educate" students. The students, who are hoped to become caring and skillful doctors, are taught to mistreat an intelligent and sensing little animal in a position of absolute power over the animal: The frog has no chance of a fair escape, none whatsoever. A sensible thing to teach the students would be to teach the student to not violate the frog. A sensible thing to teach the students would be how to make frogs so happy in captivity that the frogs breed! Or how to cure an animal that has been hit by a car. Frog pithing advocates are those who believe that feelings are an evil remnant of evolution rather than the purest quality of any form of life (frogs has got feelings too, you know!): Frog pithing advocates are either astoundingly ignorant people or thundering psychopats who are so afraid of their feelings that they are actually suppressing these feelings in most of what they do! Feelings are a boon! If your feelings tells you that it is wrong to cut into a live frog, your feelings are right!

Pithing is an excessively cruel procedure which originates from the 1940ies when the comprehension of animals as anything but small mechanical robots was very dim. Frogs are breathing, living and sensing beings, who can actually be distressed and feel fear. Frogs want to live peacefully same as everybody else. Nobody would ever tolerate that humans were pithed, so nobody should ever tolerate that any form of animal is pithed!

Dissection

Dissection of live frogs dates back to the 1940ties. Back then, the view of nature was not too far from "funny stuff provided by God to please Man". Dissecting a live frog is barbaric and cruel. The frog being dissected never harmed anyone, never violated any law, never ever did anything to deserve such a barbaric and cruel end to its life. Think of the individual frog. Imagine yourself being dissected because aliens think it interesting to dissect humans as an educational passtime. Wouldn't you get deeply repulsed by the idea of somebody dissecting a live human? Well, then get deeply repulsed by the idea of somebody dissecting a live frog! Acknowledge the frog!

The combo of pithing and dissecting a frog ensures the frog leaves life in the most traumatic way possible. Literally millions of frogs are tortured to death each and every year in schools in the United States of America, Asia, and elsewhere. All of these frogs did nothing wrong, but are nonetheless tortured to death in the most cruel manner.

The majority of the frogs being pithed and dissected are bred for that purpose. Ethically speaking, these frogs are raised to be tortured to death. Ethically speaking, raising frogs for the purpose of pithing and dissecting them is unsurpassedly wrong. Imagine humans bred for the purpose of having their brains squashed, after which the live humans are subducted to a dissection of their live tissue. What would you say about that? Well, say the same in the case of the frogs: Ban pithing and dissection of frogs NOW!

Test Yourself

Please take a good look at this picture of a frog:

Then ask yourself: Would I want to pithe that frog? Unless you're a raving psychopat, the answer would clearly be: NO! Now think of the millions of frogs being pithed and dissected while being alive each and every year...

What Can You Do?

Fight pithing of frogs everywhere around you. For example, you can inquire at the school you or your children attend whether frog pithing and dissection is used as part of the Biology classes. If so, you can forward a copy of this document to the respective authorities on that school and encourage them to ban pithing and dissection immediately. The point in helping the frogs the most is imagining that each frog is a tiny little person and then keep in mind that no person, whether tiny or big, wants to have his or her spinal chord severed and his or her brain squashed for the sake of some students who most oftenly don't even wish to embark on the very barbaric and cruel operation of cutting a live being to pieces while the heart of the live being is pumping.

Students

If you're a student, simply refuse to participate in frog pithing and dissection. Some states of the USA already have enacted laws requiring the teacher to provide an alternate project to the student, if he or she refuses to participate in torturing frogs. If possible, make a written letter to the head of the department, explaining that you find frog pithing and dissection barbaric, cruel, and most of all unwarranted. Explain that you don't learn to become a good doctor by harming innocent animals. You learn to become a good doctor by caring for innocent animals.

Parents

If you are a parent, please instruct your child to refuse to participate in frog pithing and dissection. Engage yourself in the fight to abolish frog pithing and dissection on your local school.

Politicians

If you are politician, work to have laws enacted which completely prohibits frog pithing and dissection. Try to keep in mind that the frog is actually scared beyond your wildest nightmare when the knife draws near to cut the frog to braindeadness. The frog is scared! Try to remember that: The frog is scared and does not want to end his or her days being being cut open while still being alive! Try to think in terms of civilness, compassion, decency, mercy, and necessity (it is absolutely unnecessary to pithe and dissect live frogs!).

Anybody

If you're capable of writing a postal letter, send a letter to the politicians of your region, explaining to them that frogs are aware, intelligent, and sentient little beings who scream in fear and terror when about to be pithed. Ask the politicians how they would feel about being pithed. Ask the politicans to enact laws that absolutely prohibit pithing and dissection of all frogs -- live as dead (the dead frogs are simply murdered in advance!).

You can join one of the many anti-vivisectionist organisations that exist. Try searching Google for anti-vivisectionists in your region, become a member, and pay the yearly membership fee for the rest of your life! Only by actively helping will you be helping! Wanting and wishing does not alter the world!

Ideas

Write email to all members of Congress. Work to have Congress outlaw frog pithing and dissection altogether. Work to have the EU ban frog pithing. Write email to all nature organisations that might support anti-pithing efforts. Prepare a campain, roll this campain out so that the year 2007 becomes the anti-frog-abuse year on Earth. Encourage everybody to independently send letters to their politicians asking that frog pithing and dissection is outlawed. Describe, with references, the pain symptoms that the frogs display while being pithed (screaming, jumping, etc.). Make clear that a major problem in pithing is that traditionally the students are themselves performing the pithing operation, even though the students are completely without prior experience in performing this highly sensitive surgical operation on a live frog. If the students fail, which they almost certainly often do (being completely untrained in pithing), the frog suffers the consequences!

Discontinuation of Pithing

The situation of the frogs, in Biology classes, is not all dark. The past 20 years, a greater awareness of the plights and sufferings of animals in human society has spread all across the globe. Not all frog pithing and dissection has been abolished, but the trend is moving that way.

The View Is Changing

An article on the Internet gives hope for the discontinuation of frog pithing and dissection to happen soon. The summary of the article is: Scientists need to learn to feel for animals. Scientists need to learn that the need for objective study may not override the care for animals. After all, most scientists would not like the tag 'psychopat'. However, looking at frog pithing and dissection, you have to wonder if those who instate such barbaric and cruel methods aren't psychopats (another possibility is that these people are not comprehending that frogs have feelings and that frogs are terrorfied by fear prior to and during the pithing). Those in authority need to contemplate whether they would themselves like being pithed. Thou shalt not do unto others what thou dost not want done to thee!

Anti-Pithing Organizations Exist

An organisation, calling itself "The National Anti-Vivisection Society" (NAVS), continously works to abolish vivisections (dissections) of animals in product testing, education, and in scientific research. Unfortunately, NAVS is operating in the United States of America only. But NAVS have got counterparts in almost every country, so whereever you live, you can make a difference by joining your local anti-vivisection organisation.

Appendix: Holding A Frog

Holding a frog is one of the most beautiful experiences you can ever get. The frog is unique in its untamed friendliness. No other untamed form of life that I know of displays the immediate and genuine friendliness that held frogs display. Most untamed forms of life literally freaks out and behaves very aggressively when held. Not so with the frog: The frog is your natural friend!

Ideally speaking, we humans should only pick up and hold a frog if the frog is hurt and need our help. However, holding a frog is a very educating experience as holding a frog clearly shows you the gentle and safe nature of the frog. For this reason you are presented the proper way of holding a frog.

For quiet, sedate types of frogs, especially toads, you can let the frog rest on your fingers while you gently signal to the frog that he may not move by letting your thumb rest gently on the back of the frog (frogs do understand such hints!):

For restless frogs, you need to use the following procedure (gently borrowed from 'Frog'-uently Asked Questions):

"Use extreme caution when holding frogs. It is best to grasp their shoulder blades (or scapulae) with your thumb and forefinger. Be careful not to squeeze their abdominal area. Touch frogs only with wet hands that have been cleaned of all sunscreens or insect repellants, which can kill frogs, tadpoles, or eggs."

The important thing being that you are gentle -- do not squeeze the frog! Try to hold the frog as gently as you possibly can! Try to keep in mind that you are hundreds of times bigger than the frog and that what seems as a light touch to you may be a fatal squeeze to the frog -- even a light squeeze may leave the frog sore for days!

If you cannot determine the gender of the frog without upsetting him or her, then leave the issue alone: The world does not crash and burn because you do not know the gender of a frog! If you do not know the gender of the frog, simply make an educated guess from the size of the frog and consistently label the frog him or her: Avoid using the it pronoun about a living being!

Appendix: Frogwatching

Frogwatching is the process of watching frogs in their natural habitats in nature. Frogwatching can be a lot of fun and at the same time very educating. When going frogwatching, you should keep in mind that the frogs are wild animals who really prefer to not be disturbed at all. In fact, I have experienced frogs that migrated away from their pond out of dislike of being disturbed: For a few times, a couple of us went to watch frogs at their little secluded forest pond in a nearby forest. The first few times, there was a large Green Frog (Rana esculenta), which is very similar to the Leopard Frog of the United States of America, which I studied very interestedly as she jumped into the water, after which she swam to a good spot among the plants to observe us. The next time I came to the pond, I noticed that she was gone! Ever since then, I have been looking for her but without spotting her (it is a tiny pond). I am pretty sure what happened is that she decided to migrate upon the frequent noise that we made coming to her pond. I hope that she is well and that she will some day return to the secluded forest pond, as I had no intentions whatsoever of ruining her bliss and happiness. As a result of this experience, I have decided to not disturb the frogs anymore at their little paradise: Frogs are very sensitive to being disturbed and frogs very much like their secluded peace. The price of not getting to see the frogs in their natural habitat anymore is a small price to pay for the continued happiness of the frogs. After all, I can see thousands of frog pictures on the Internet!

The bottom line being: When going frogwatching, keep in mind that some frogs really are very sensitive to being disturbed: The best you can do for the frogs, unless you are participating in a frog monitoring program, is to simply leave the frogs alone. If you want to try the experience of holding a frog, wait until you some day stumble across a common toad who explores your garden or another area in your proximity: Toads are very sturdy little people who can easily survive the experience of being picked up and held, insofar as you make sure to treat the toad as carefully and gentle as you can.