Dogs in Outback Australia are getting hallucinogenic ”highs” from licking the backs of cane toads, a vet in the Northern Territory town of Katherine said on Friday.
Megan Pickering said she was getting used to dogs being brought in that had developed a taste for the poisonous secretions.
”We have had quite a number of cases of dogs that are getting addicted to the toxin,” Pickering told the Northern Territory News.
”They lick the toads and only take in a small amount of the poison,” she added. ”They get a smile on their face and look like they are going to wander off into the sunset.”
Cane toads were imported from South America in the 1930s to deal with insects in Queensland’s sugar cane fields, but have become pests. Lizards and other native animals that eat them die of poisoning. – Sapa-DPA