# Cane Toad Sneakers



## REPTILIAN-KMAN (Dec 3, 2010)

IT may not have any natural predators in the nation's food chain but the cane toad just got a new and deadly enemy - fashion. 
Skin from the despised toads, which have wreaked havoc in the nation's north, have been turned into leather and combined with kangaroo hide to create high-fashion sneakers.

Despite costing up to $450 a pair, the Gideon Shoes are attracting strong interest, including from celebrities such as Jay Kay from Jamiroquai.

The shoes - to be launched next week - are not just fashionable but also support a good cause.

All profits from the brainchild of Matt and Rupert Noffs from the Ted Noffs Foundation will go to the charity's Street University - Australia's largest youth drop-in centre - in southwestern Sydney.

"We wanted to set something up that would help fund the Street University program and we are also passionate about ethics and want to change the way people look at fashion," Rupert Noffs said from New York yesterday.

*Published On:* -
*Source:* The Daily Telegraph

*Go to Original Article*


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## moosenoose (Dec 3, 2010)

Forget the maseur sandals, after the multitude of warts you'll develop after banging a pair of these beauts on, you won't need em!! :lol:


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## Chris1 (Dec 3, 2010)

haha, thats awesome, the shoes look great too!!


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## Sunnette (Dec 3, 2010)

Cool looking shoes. Bit pricey for cane toad materials, but I guess it's a good cause. Good idea, I wonder if they accept cane toad donations. Hehehehehe ...


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## REPTILIAN-KMAN (Dec 3, 2010)

Sunnette said:


> Cool looking shoes. Bit pricey for cane toad materials, but I guess it's a good cause. Good idea, I wonder if they accept cane toad donations. Hehehehehe ...


 
load up the ute with em live and donate them great idea ! ha ha ha 

I 'd rather go naked than wear ------------ cane toad! 

i can see it now


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## punisherSIX (Dec 3, 2010)

Wow, how do they do it so cheap?
Looked much better than I expected, I expected it to look like wearing green wart riddled scrotums on your feet


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## FusionMorelia (Dec 3, 2010)

450 a pair!!! seriously this is a joke! good idea but seriously who the hell is paying 450 for shoes! 
if your buying bloody shoes for 450 i have i have a jar of god's will for 200 pm me!


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## slim6y (Dec 3, 2010)

How (pray do tell) does using kangaroo hide 'support a good cause'?

Secondly - if you haven't already followed previous posts - once the toad is established, it causes very little damage to the area it inhabits. There is some 'healthy' competition but the multitude of animals that die generally become very aware after a short period of time (sometimes in a few years). This is highly evident in the north where toads have been well established. 

However - the use of toads is not an issue - but the use of kangaroo - the not so pesty native is a concern (in my mind)... It matters not that we have to 'cull' roos because we caused them to over-populate in areas... 

On the other hand, maybe it will lead to a similar 'mink' boycott that has already happened. 

Things like toad wallets, and other toad skin artefacts don't require kangaroo and the profits (though clearly not that much) could still go to charity!


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## Fuscus (Dec 3, 2010)

Yet another "cane toad is doomed because we have a use" article that will have a brief moment in the spotlight before fading off into the night to be quickly forgotten.
Or am I being too cynical?


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## Sock Puppet (Dec 3, 2010)

REPTILIAN-KMAN said:


> Despite costing up to $450 a pair, the Gideon Shoes are attracting strong interest


Gideon? What, do you get a free bible with every pair?



punisherSIX said:


> I expected it to look like wearing green wart riddled scrotums on your feet


shhhhhhh, they haven't formally announced next season's line


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## Darlyn (Dec 3, 2010)

slim6y said:


> Secondly - if you haven't already followed previous posts - once the toad is established, it causes very little damage to the area it inhabits. There is some 'healthy' competition but the multitude of animals that die generally become very aware after a short period of time (sometimes in a few years). This is highly evident in the north where toads have been well established.


 


So after the animals are dead they become aware?
It's great to know that it's okay for all these animals to die, some nearly to extinction, because of the cane toad.
But then it concerns you about the culling of kangaroos? So if a toad killed a roo that would be alright? hhmmm confusing!


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## slim6y (Dec 3, 2010)

Darlyn said:


> So after the animals are dead they become aware?
> It's great to know that it's okay for all these animals to die, some nearly to extinction, because of the cane toad.
> But then it concerns you about the culling of kangaroos? So if a toad killed a roo that would be alright? hhmmm confusing!


 
Tell me Darlyn - which animals have died in the far north to extinction because of toads?

I'm really sorry Darlyn, but I don't follow your logic about toads vs roos - no roo has died as a result of digesting a toad that I am aware of.

So - if I may... A kangaroo is a native (tick... I got that one right).

A kangaroo may be over populating some areas because of irrigation, agriculture, farming, and pushed out of urban areas (tick... I got that one right).

So we cull them off so they don't all starve - just like in Canberra around the army base....

My point is - we are killing toads (which I am ok with - so long it's for the right reasons) and our native kangaroos (which are NOT farmed for this purpose) so someone can make bollocks money on a fashion item and then you go ahead to ask if a toad kills a roo would that be ok???

I'm the on e confused - not you!!!

Now, back to the first part...

Name me ALL species that are nearly extinct or are extinct as a DIRECT result of the introduction of the toad....

Then name me all species (such as quolls) which have adjusted to toads and no longer try to eat them.

Then look at R Shrine's Debunking Myths about Cane Toad Impact

And read up before you make inflammatory comments or incorrect or even worse, been misinformed or begin to misinform others... And as for your smart comments about roos... I think you should just re-read my original statement or the one directly above here.


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## slim6y (Dec 3, 2010)

Sorry, I figure people like you are too lazy to click....

Myth # 2
Toads have caused the extinction of many native Australian species
*The truth is, no Australian species is known or even suspected to have gone extinct as a result of cane toads.* When they first arrive in a new area, cane toads kill lots of frog-eating predators like quolls (carnivorous marsupials), goannas (varanid lizards) and snakes like death adders, red-bellied blacksnakes and king brown snakes. But over time, the Australian species adapt to deal with the toad’s presence – so if you go to places where toads have been around for many decades, most of those predator species are much more common again. They may not be as common as they were before toads arrived – we can’t tell because we don’t have any detailed information on historical numbers – but they certainly are much more common than they were a few years after the toads arrived.

How do the Australian frog-eating predators change so they can deal with toads? Two things happen. First is that many species just don’t like the taste of toads, or feel sick if they eat one but don’t die – and so they learn to stop trying to eat things that look like toads. For example, fishes (like barramundi), frogs (like the Dahl’s Aquatic Frog) and mammals (like planigales) all learn to avoid toads very quickly.

The second thing that can happen is that even if species don’t learn quickly (perhaps because eating even a small toad is fatal), they can adapt by means of rapid evolutionary change. So, for example, red-bellied blacksnakes are very slow learners but nonetheless persist even in areas where toads have occurred for a long time. The way they achieve this comes about because the only survivors when toads arrive are the few snakes that happen to have genes that say “don’t eat a toad”; or that confer resistance to the toad’s poison. When they reproduce, they pass those characteristics onto their babies – and so, we soon get a population of blacksnakes that can coexist with toads without too many problems.


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## Darlyn (Dec 3, 2010)

Woah!
I can see this is a favourite topic of yours.
I never said animals had become extinct due to the toads I said "nearly".
Quolls, mertons water monitors and a few snakes have had their numbers greatly reduced
due to the cane toads. Some quolls were moved to islands to ensure they remained safe from the toads.

Recently on NT Statewide there was a report on the decimation of animals that Aboriginals use as a staple food item
and that in some areas they can no longer hunt them as they have all but disappeared.

The reason I posted was because it seemed that you were saying it's okay if toads kill animals for years, because in the end they will make a comeback but it's not okay to cull animals that are in plague proportions in some areas.
And I was confused by that. Still am really.
Also, because you live in Cairns you are probably on the upside of the cane toad invasion and your populations of wildlife are probably making a come back, whereas here we are still witnessing their devastating impact.
Thanks for all the info tho it's very interesting.


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## Sunnette (Dec 3, 2010)

Hmmmm, that is an interesting website. I see the point saying that most Australian fauna adapts to these cane toads, but there are some that have suffered as well :

_"Sometimes, it’s a lot! From work by Professor Thomas Madsen and Dr Beata Ujvari at Fogg Dam, as well as Dr Greg Brown’s regular counts, we know that most of the big floodplain goannas were killed by trying to eat toads, within a year or so of the toads first arriving. It’s likely that around 90% of the adult goannas may have died in this way – a huge impact."_
Biodiversity Impact

The website also states (on the same page):

_The overall story then, is that when the toads arrive some species (especially big predators) are in real trouble. Others – especially the species that used to be prey for those big predators – probably benefit from the toads’ arrival._

All I can say, it was really sad finding a beautiful water dragon in my garden dead, next to a dead cane toad  I believe the dragons were here first, and it's their habitat.

As for the kangaroos, I don't know much about the industry, so I won't make assumptions. But from the post above I gather the over population in certain areas is due to loss of habitat? It would seem to me the kangaroos have similar issues to the above mentioned water dragons. Their habitats are taken away by humans instead of cane toads. But since we put the toads here, it all boils down to the destructive force that is us. It's a price we pay for being 'civilised', or at least a price the planet pays. For now.


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## MR_IAN_DAVO (Dec 3, 2010)

slim6y said:


> Sorry, I figure people like you are too lazy to click....
> 
> Myth # 2
> Toads have caused the extinction of many native Australian species
> ...



SO because of this finding, which I am not totally in agreeance with, but some university scientific genius has come up with, WE should allow the progress of cane toads & everthing will turn out ok.

I for one hope that they make CANE TOAD BOOTS, SKIRTS,TROUSERS & whatever they can to get rid of the stupid mongrel things.
And I also hope that someone comes up with a good recipe for them. Really where have you been hiding.


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## MR_IAN_DAVO (Dec 3, 2010)

& the barst...s still get up & crawl away. Anyone that likes them must be a supplier or have a recipe.


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## cris (Dec 4, 2010)

Good idea, roo leather and taod skin are excellent material for making shoes and other stuff, if they wernt fashionable and expensive i would get some.



slim6y said:


> Sorry, I figure people like you are too lazy to click....
> 
> Myth # 2
> Toads have caused the extinction of many native Australian species
> ...


 
There are way too many mistakes and misleading statements here for me to bother to prove them wrong. Its true that ecosystems and many species will will adjust to something like canetoads, but that doesnt mean they arnt a serious problem. While cane toads arnt in the same league as global warming, its pretty easy to say that life will adapt to global warming, but there will be considerable damage along the way, especially when combined with other factors. IMO its best to try and manage such problems as well as possible, especially considering the rapid accumulation of many issues impacting on wildlife.

Proving an extinction was caused by a single animal or other problem is very difficult and often impossible as many factors are usually involved.


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## slim6y (Dec 4, 2010)

MR_IAN_DAVO said:


> SO because of this finding, which I am not totally in agreeance with, but some university scientific genius has come up with, WE should allow the progress of cane toads & everthing will turn out ok.
> 
> I for one hope that they make CANE TOAD BOOTS, SKIRTS,TROUSERS & whatever they can to get rid of the stupid mongrel things.
> And I also hope that someone comes up with a good recipe for them. Really where have you been hiding.


 
But Ian... I would suggest that we have to take the harm minimisation approach... Toads are here, we can't get rid of them completely and making fancy boots is sure as hell not going to encourage a large disappearance of toads either....

Continual attacking on the front line of the toad invasion is by far the best way - and not with golf clubs, as golf clubs only do a quarter of the job (and we've had this discussion jace1 - and frankly I find your pleasure in killing an animal (or attempting to) with a golf club nothing short of cruelty and above all many toads survive and even if they die they're still fodder for many Australian natives which succumb to their poison - so don't club em). 

I think toads are a pest - however, the amount of damage they do is significantly lower than originally believed. And yes, I do see many frogs around our house (in suburbia) and that is probably because of toads! I guess I also see a lot less mosquitoes too!

So - as far as toads go - they're an overly successful breed and they're here to stay... I for one do catch and kill the toads on numerous occasions... So I've not been hiding anywhere - but I di care to follow the academics who research, study and investigate these claims and then analyse and write thesis after thesis on the subject - I put more credit in that than I would the 'typical Australian' male who'd sooner club a toad before fully understanding it.


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## FusionMorelia (Dec 5, 2010)

down playing the impact of toads is not only naive but foolish, believe what you want from that flimsy write up 
the fact remains the same they should be killed on sight ,only 1 thing to understand it is a major introduced pest
i would prefer to help my native animals than understand a single thing about toads and people with bleeding heart issues..


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## MR_IAN_DAVO (Dec 5, 2010)

I have seen Documentories where native aussie animals die with them still in thier mouth. Not that you can believe everything BUT the camera did show this.
I hate toads anyway.


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## moosenoose (Dec 5, 2010)

I'm hanging out for the Cane Toad jocks!!!........ literally!


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