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Post by jeannie on May 4, 2004 11:24:26 GMT -4
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Australian carrier Qantas said Tuesday it has changed its lettuce supplier after a passenger on a flight from Melbourne to Wellington found a live frog in her greens.
The one-inch Australian whistling tree frog didn't get a chance to hop away. The woman plunked the lid back on her meal preventing any escape.
The Qantas plane's crew notified the Quarantine Service while the plane was still in the air and officials were waiting when it landed at Wellington Airport.
"I'm afraid the frog was euthanized" in a freezer, service general manager Fergus Small told National Radio.
Quarantine officials made a check of the airplane "but no other frogs were detected," he said.
A Qantas spokesman told National Radio that the airline had changed its supplier since the February incident. Tree frogs were common in the area where the lettuce was grown.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on May 4, 2004 23:54:21 GMT -4
I hated Science class in school when frogs were killed by "pithing" or being slammed against the side of a desk by the "teacher".  On "The Simpsons", when in Australia, Bart let loose a pregnant frog. . . resulting in a Biblical plague on the hapless Aussies.  On Guam and Samoa much of the native species, especially birds, were wiped put by invading snakes and feral cats.  It is a huge worldwide problem, flora and fauna. |
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Post by cognac on May 5, 2004 0:25:17 GMT -4
Thankfully in High School I didn't have to participate in the disection of frogs or fetal pigs. I had to be present, but not do anything. Thankfully also our animals came in dead. I think all disections in high schools should be done on dead convicts. I don't think that frogs or pigs should be slaughtered for this reason.
Cognac
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Post by Die Fledermaus on May 5, 2004 0:35:25 GMT -4
Oh JEEEEEEZZZ.  In Science Lab class, at the start of the weekly four hour session, the instructor pulled out the placenta (?) of a dead pig, slit it open, and all these baby fetuses came out! Somehow, I do not have the slightest recollection of what happened next, whetehr I dissected them, or visually looked at them, or whatever. I do not think I threw up, but I have no recollection. Maybe it was becasue it was at 8 AM on a dark cold December morning - which made it all worse. One of the worst college memories I have. (Insert BARF icon here). |
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Post by cognac on May 5, 2004 0:40:51 GMT -4
My high school physics teacher told me one of her college professors made the class dissect kittens (or cats), you had to participate. I'd put up a fight, I wouldn't do it in high scholl what being would think they could make me do it in college.
Cognac
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Post by jeannie on May 5, 2004 11:57:36 GMT -4
Every animal I desected arrived at the school in fermaldehyde. I never dissected a cat, but between middle school, high school and college bio classes, I had to dissect 3 frogs, 2 earthworm, and 2 fetal pigs. It didn't bother me at the time (I was brainwashed as a child by the conservative environment I grew up in), but it would bother me to do it now. I watched "Best of Autopsy" last night and it was truly disgusting. On Monday night, I watched "Wild Boyz" on MTV, which was pretty disturbing too. I'll spare you the details though.  |
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Post by Hamsters82 on May 5, 2004 13:59:38 GMT -4
Aww...poor frog. You guys saw them kill the animal & then disect it...is that what you're saying? Ours came in dead already. I've only done a worm & a frog. My brother recently did a cat...gross!  |
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Post by jeannie on May 5, 2004 14:35:23 GMT -4
No, ours arrived dead. It sounds like DF's teacher was sick. I've never heard of anything like that before.
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Post by Die Fledermaus on May 5, 2004 23:30:21 GMT -4
>> It didn't bother me at the time (I was brainwashed as a child by the conservative environment I grew up in). . . << What is implied by that? Maybe it is best we don't know, and don't go there. . . that is one gigantic can of worms I would love to "dissect" in a discussion. Although in Texas, for those who watch such as "King of the Hill", blasting away a deer and hauling the carcass back on a hood is a right of passage for pubescent males. But perhaps that is a. . . stereotype. Ah! Maybe "traditional Texas environment" is what was meant.  I just finished watching the DVD of "Oh Brother Where Are Thou?", if I remember the Coen brothers' quirky title right. I will only watch Clooney on DVD, three dollar rental, tops. Good movie, very well directed, great soundtrack - and three scenes of animal cruelty: a hand-crushed toad; a cow seen run over by a car; a drowned bloodhound. Don't tell me it was "simulated"; I know that; that is not the point! - - - - - - BTW, off-topic (even more so than usual). . . the NYC botanic gardens, and Green-Wood Cemetery are resplendent right now. Bring a camera before the blossoms fall. The eastern part of G-W is rife with dogwoods in full bloom, and the Twonsend Harris (founder of CCNY; first U.S. ambassador to Japan) is sublime with Japanese motiffs, and shaded by both a dogwood and flowering cherry. (Photos later). |
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Post by Die Fledermaus on May 5, 2004 23:33:28 GMT -4
No, ours arrived dead. It sounds like DF's teacher was sick. I've never heard of anything like that before. Grabbed the back legs, and slammed the head and neck against the lab room desk. Students were not pleased, although not loudly so. I forget what happened next but I do NOT recall students doing that; I forget how the frogs ended up dead before we got them. If it happened now I would likely end up suspended for threatening to do the same to the teacher. |
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Post by mishimouse on May 5, 2004 23:48:38 GMT -4
We have not dissected anything in reality yet in our Science classes. Science is my favorite subject, and my teacher has promised that if we ever do have to dissect I won't have to be there for it. ;D
We've dissected frogs through the computer - we went down to the computer lab and onto a website that is for dissecting "animals" that were made on a photoshop program.
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Post by jeannie on May 6, 2004 0:01:07 GMT -4
Glad to hear times are changing, MishiMouse.
DF, these days a teacher would probably get in trouble for doing that.
What I mean is I grew up in an all white, wealthy neighborhood, where people were Bible beaters, who cared more about maintaining a certain image and gossiping than they did about things like the environment or animal rights. I was trying so hard to pretend to be like everybody else and fit in that I often didn't think for myself.
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Post by rasputin on May 6, 2004 3:12:43 GMT -4
Don't worry -- most times "everybody else" won't think for themselves either. It's always rewarding to work with people who don't live on the group autopilot. I had to do worms, frogs, starfish. I didn't take the class where it was going to be kittens and piglets, etc. I would have, though, had I not decided against a biology-grounded career. The frog had an undigested beetle in its gullet -- we had to dissect that too. My lab partner ate (!) the frog's heart. He also spent six months in drug rehab shortly thereafter. The heart-eating apparently was part of a bet, the proceeds of which kept him numb all weekend. To a certain extent, you need to know how it is put together to know how to fix it, right? If my surgeon faints seeing an internal organ, I sure don't want him working in me -- afraid of an elevated blood-vomit level. I know that's not my calling now -- I don't have to do it, and wouldn't. |
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Post by jeannie on May 6, 2004 11:04:04 GMT -4
Three years of living in San Francisco, and totally confusing those Dallas values, helped me recover from the affliction Rasputin, you've known some real winners, haven't you? Were you there when he ate the heart? I'm surprised he didn't get sick from it. |
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