Fort Worth Firefighters Receive PETA Award for Rescuing Frog From House Fire

First Responders Hop to the Rescue of Tiny Blaze Victim

For Immediate Release:
September 26, 2014

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Alexis Sadoti Alexis Sadoti

A frog in need found some friends indeed, in the Fort Worth Fire Department. While responding to a fire Tuesday night at what they thought was the unoccupied home of a family who was away on vacation, firefighters learned that there was a frog trapped inside the blazing house. The crew entered the home and retrieved the frog, who was inside a glass tank, and reunited the unharmed amphibian with the family.

For its dedication to protecting all of Fort Worth’s residents—no matter their species or size—PETA will send the Fort Worth Fire Department a framed Compassionate Fire Department Award, along with an assortment of vegan cookies and a letter of appreciation.

“The Fort Worth Fire Department’s swift action meant the difference between life and death for this little frog—and it was surely a relief to the frog’s family that their friend was saved,” says PETA Senior Director Colleen O’Brien. “PETA salutes the department for recognizing that all lives deserve to be protected.”

Frogs are complex animals with unique abilities. Many frog species are devoted and resourceful parents who protect their tadpoles inside pouches along their sides, in their vocal sacs, or even in their stomachs. Scientists recently discovered that one tiny species of earless frogs—previously assumed to be deaf—is able to hear by using its mouth to resonate sound like a guitar and that other frogs drum out messages to each other by using their feet.

Among its other work to help amphibians, PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way,” has donated modern virtual-dissection software to schools so that students can learn anatomy without flaying frogs, works to get dissection-choice legislation passed in every state, helped stop sales of “Frog-O-Spheres”—tiny plastic cubes in which frogs were forced to languish in a few ounces of water—and offers Frog Saver Lily Pads (devices that save frogs from drowning in pools and ponds) on PETACatalog.com.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.