[First filed: Dec 13, 2009 @ 8:16]
Back when I worked in cinemas in London (over ten years ago) we had sensors in our refrigerators and freezers that triggered alarms when the temperatures departed from the acceptable range.
One might think the ACT Government’s much vaunted northern corroboree frog breeding program would care about its charges at least as much as a cinema cares about its ice creams. I mean if you lose a batch of ice creams you can get more delivered tomorrow. Whereas a rare frog breeding program indicates there are problems with supply.
But the ABC informs us that TAMS couldn’t even manage that:
Around 700 tadpoles and 300 frogs died when the refrigeration unit in a purpose built container housing the frogs at Tidbinbilla failed.
The frogs had been bred in captivity over the past two years.
Sharon Lane from the Department of Territory and Municipal Services says the breeding program staff are shattered.
It’s nice to know that having negligently slaughtered a population they were funded to propagate they feel badly.
They’re now promising to install an alarm system.
I’d be disappointed if it wasn’t entirely in keeping with what we’ve become used to.
UPDATE: The ABC’s Breakfast News is reporting a CT Story (no link at this time) saying the initial failure was a breeding program employee deciding to turn the refrigeration off so an ABC camera crew could have a better sound environment for recording.
Which makes one wonder what they thought the camera crew had come out for?
The greater failure still lies not in the fridge being turned off (horrific as it is), but the lack of monitoring systems capable of alerting anyone to the mishap.
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