Charity turns cane toad pest into princely footwear
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SYDNEY — The warty and toxic cane toad may be the most reviled animal in Australia, but a charity has devised a way to make good use of the invasive pests — fashioning them into sneakers fit for a prince.
Efforts to eradicate the repulsive hopper, a prolific breeder which has spread widely in the country’s tropical reaches since being introduced to kill beetles in the 1930s, have included killing them with golf clubs and driving over them.
But Rupert Noffs hopes the shoes he and his brother Matt have devised will be a kinder way of depleting the numbers of the incredibly tough amphibian which secretes a poison which can kill pets and wildlife and injure humans.
He says that people who have seen the sneakers — which combine kangaroo leather with a cane toad detail — are taken aback at how a loathsome creature can be converted into a fashion statement.
“Sometimes when people first see them they kinda freak out and then they go ‘Actually, it’s quite beautiful’” he told AFP ahead of the Gideon Shoes launch in Sydney on Thursday..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101219com6.html
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