Group Leaps to Defense of Jumping Frogs

An animal rights group has declared the famed Calaveras County Jumping Frog Jubilee and similar contests around the country cruel and inhumane, saying frogs should not be taken from their native habitat for human entertainment.

Members of the Animal Protection Institute, an 80,000-member animal rights group based in Sacramento, are encouraging other outraged frog lovers to write letters to the directors of the annual event in California’s gold country that features the acrobatics of frogs memorialized in Mark Twain’s classic 1865 short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

Animal rights advocate Larisa Bryski says she remembers jumping frogs from 1988, when she made a bid for Miss Calaveras County. Now, she’d prefer that humans stop jostling the amphibians in the hot summer sun altogether, saying constant handling of the frog’s permeable skin makes it easy for disease and infection to take hold.

Buck King, longtime manager of the Calaveras County Fair, is not swayed. He said the frogs are treated with respect and are returned to their shady homes in ponds and streams.

“We’re very conscious of how frogs are treated. If any frogs are mistreated, we deal with the person,” King said. “In fact, I’ve had to evict people from the fairgrounds permanently.”

The county fair and frog jubilee are held in May at the fairgrounds in Angels Camp, about 55 miles east of Stockton. Between 2,500 and 3,000 frogs are collected each year, King said.

King said the annual contest began in 1928 to celebrate the paving of the city’s streets.