More than 200 people—mostly children—have been sickened by a unique strain of salmonella, a serious infection that can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever. The culprit? The African dwarf frog breeder who supplied frogs for EcoAquariums. These cruel tiny plastic cubes—to which frogs are confined for life—are sold by national retailers across the United States and Canada. The California Department of Public Health has issued an urgent notice asking vendors to discontinue selling the frogs immediately, and PETA is seconding that call.

Jamming delicate frogs into plastic cubes with just a few ounces of water is usually a death sentence for the animals. The frogs can barely move and are slowly poisoned by their own waste. A PETA investigation into Wild Creations—one of the suppliers of the frogs used for this gimmick—documented filthy conditions, starvation, and rampant neglect and mishandling of frogs.
 

 
Many national retailers have stopped selling these tiny tanks, which put both amphibians and customers at risk. Please ask Learning Express, Kirlin's Hallmark, Toy Jungle Enterprises Inc., Scholar's Choice, and Coach House Gifts to pull these cruel "novelties" off the shelves for good.
 

Written by Jennifer O'Connor

After 18 months of protests, thousands of calls and e-mails, and appearances outside Brookstone stores by our giant "frog," Brookstone has finally decided to pull a cruel product called the "Frog-O-Sphere" from its shelves!

PETA started campaigning against the tiny plastic frog prisons after receiving complaints from Brookstone customers and after a whistleblower reported that frogs and snails housed in the tiny 4-inch-by-4-inch plastic boxes were neglected, deprived of veterinary care and adequate food, and kept in filthy water. The whistleblower told PETA that when frogs became obviously ill and "unsaleable," they were moved to the stores' storage rooms, where they often wasted away and died.

PETA's undercover investigation of Wild Creations—the company that came up with the idiotic idea of throwing two frogs and some gravel into a container smaller than a shoebox and leaving them there for their entire lives—revealed filthy conditions and deadly neglect. In some cases, frogs were so hungry that that they chewed each other's legs off.

juhansonin/cc by 2.0

Brookstone joins Magic Beans, Target, and other retailers that have stopped selling these cruel products, but Coach House Gifts is still selling frogs in "EcoAquariums" to make an easy buck. In one shipment to Coach House Gifts, 37 out of 40 frogs died after they were left in a container so long that they suffered from heat prostration. Please take a moment to urge the company to stop selling its deadly EcoAquariums.

Written by Michelle Sherrow

We received a call recently from a whistleblower who alerted us to a situation at Coach House Gifts, a Clovis, California–based business where 37 out of 40 frogs in a shipment died after being left in a shipping box so long that they succumbed to heat prostration.

Wondering what a store that specializes in greeting cards and silly bracelets is doing with frog shipments? Well, Coach House Gifts also sells frogs who are crammed into 4-inch plastic cubes. These "desk decorations" are similar to Brookstone's "Frog-O-Spheres."

The similarities between the two novelty gifts don't stop there, either. Both Coach House Gifts and Brookstone buy their frogs from a hellhole called Wild Creations. Our undercover investigation into Wild Creations documented rampant neglect and mishandling of these delicate animals and a total disregard for their needs, welfare, and lives. Our investigator witnessed frogs being thrown around and even tossed into the garbage while they were still alive.

Please ask Coach House Gifts President Craig J. Walker to pull these cruel novelties off the shelves immediately. And then demand that Brookstone do the same!

Written by Jennifer O'Connor