Catching toads and geckos? "Punishment"! Very "punishing"!

Do you remember the news that "Two men were arrested for catching 44 geckos" that was trending a few days ago? You must be very curious. Geckos can't be caught. Doesn't it subvert your imagination? In fact, it's not just geckos that can't be caught. Even catching toads is a crime. What, you don't believe it?

You must have not seen the news that a couple caught 121 toads and scraped their venom for illegal hunting and were subject to criminal compulsory measures. This is definitely a surprising but legal act to a certain extent. Let's talk about this today.

01Toad​

I guess everyone has seen toads. Maybe when you were a kid, you even tried to distinguish toads from frogs. However, toad is a common name. Its scientific name is toad, which is an amphibian of the family Toadidae in the order Anura. Of course, there are many kinds of toads. In my country, the most common ones are Chinese toads, flower-backed toads and black-framed toads, which are basically distributed throughout the country.

Toads themselves are an important part of the ecological environment. They like to prey on various insects, especially pests such as beetles and moths. They are one of the important members in maintaining ecological balance and have therefore always been a model of beneficial animals.

The most iconic feature of the toad is that its back is covered with bumps of varying sizes, which causes visual discomfort to many people. There is even a saying "a toad wants to eat swan flesh" to describe those who have no self-awareness and are bent on obtaining things that are impossible to obtain.

In fact, these bumps are the sebaceous glands of toads. The most typical of these sebaceous glands is the parotid gland near the toad's head. This thing is poisonous. It can secrete a substance called toad venom, which is one of the great medicinal values ​​of toads.

02 Toad venom

Toad venom is actually a mixture. For example, after extracting toad venom with 95% ethanol and separating and purifying the compounds using column chromatography methods such as silica gel column, Saphadex LH-20, and HPLC, it was shown that the ingredients of toad venom include:

Isoflavone-3-octanedioic acid monoester (1), toad toxin-3-octanedioic acid monoester (2), cinobucoid venom (3), toad toxin (4), isoflavone (5), helleborin (6), 12β-hydroxybuflin (7), resibufagin (8), deacetylcintoxin (9), toad toxin (10), cinobucoid (11), toad toxin (12).

Toad venom has a wide range of uses, such as treating arrhythmias, purulent infections, and may even play a role in anti-tumor effects.

However, the amount of toad venom is not actually that large, and only a few dozen milligrams of toad venom can be collected from one toad. Different toads also contain different amounts of toad venom, so it is often necessary to collect a large amount of toad venom to obtain it.

Considering that the domestic price of toad venom is around 10,000 or 20,000 yuan, this is actually a very, very hard job.

03Is collecting toad venom harmful to toads?

There are some standard procedures for collecting toad venom. For example,

In terms of time, choose early May to the end of September every year.

As tools, copper or aluminum clamps are used, and a porcelain plate or the like is used to hold the slurry.

During the collection process, the toads need to be cleaned and then the toad venom is taken appropriately.

After collection, the toads need to be disinfected to avoid damage.

In addition, avoid the breeding season of toads so that there is little harm after collecting the toad venom.

However, if they are collected blindly or even overcrowded, it may affect the toads themselves and cause their death.

04What are the problems in catching toads?

The news at the time said that toads were third-level protected animals, which was wrong. my country's current classification of protected animals has not yet reached this level. However, toads belong to another important classification: three-protected animals.

The so-called "three-protected animals" refer to terrestrial wild animals that are protected by the state and have important ecological, scientific and social value.

As for the three protected animals, our country has many laws related to them.

Article 341 of the Criminal Law: Whoever illegally hunts or kills precious and endangered wild animals under state protection, or illegally purchases, transports, or sells precious and endangered wild animals under state protection, and the products made therefrom, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are especially serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than ten years and shall also be fined or have his property confiscated.

In accordance with the "Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (2018 Amendment)", my country has also formulated the "List of Terrestrial Wildlife with Important Ecological, Scientific and Social Values ​​Protected by the State", and the toads involved are as follows:

Ailao toad, West China toad, Panggu toad, hidden-ear toad, helmet toad, Chinese toad, Himalayan toad, Shawan toad, black-rimmed toad, Minshan toad, Xinjiang toad, flower-back toad, Tibetan toad, round-warted toad, green toad, Wolong toad, scaly-skinned thick-webbed toad, spineless creek toad, warty creek toad, West China tree toad, Chinese tree toad, Gongshan tree toad, Japanese tree toad, Sangang tree toad, South China tree toad, Qinling tree toad, Zhaoping tree toad.

In addition, various places have corresponding protection measures. For example, Shanghai has designated the entire Chongming area as a wildlife hunting ban area since November 2016.

Therefore, the treatment of this couple is also legal.

Finally, I still hope to clarify the facts. After all, many people may not know that this thing is illegal. Similarly, the gecko mentioned at the beginning is also a "three-protected" wild animal. No individual or unit may hunt or sell it at will.

[1] Xian Zhenfei, Qu Kangshan, Cheng Jun, Yin Liyan, Li Jiao, Zhang Zhiqiang. Technology for collecting toad venom and toad skin based on the ecological habits of Chinese toads [J]. Aquaculture, 2016, 37(05): 16-18.

[2] Liu Jingjing, Wang Jingyi, Guo Fujiang, Bian Xuelian, Song Yan, Wu Yingchun, Li Yiming. Study on the chemical components of the traditional Chinese medicine Toad Venom[J/OL]. Chinese Medicinal Materials, 2021(10):2329-2333[2022-06-09].DOI:10.13863/j.issn1001-4454.2021.10.013.