The Wild History Of The Canned Frog Industry

 It's the 1930s: Stocks are falling, businesses are failing, and a quarter of all workers are unemployed. Many are losing their homes. But, one man put an ad in the paper promising easy, pleasant, outdoor work generating quick, easy, sustainable money -- seemingly promising to pull anyone out of the Great Depression. All you have to do is write to Albert Broel, founder of the American Frog Canning Company, requesting a free book on raising bullfrogs (and buy five breeding pairs of Nufond Giant frogs), and you could earn over $4,000 a year (almost $90,000 in 2024). Awais

Awais

The canned frog industry was huge in the late 19th and early 20th century, and frogs' legs were a popular delicacy. Louisiana -- Rayne township, in particular -- became the global epicenter of the frog trade. Donat Pucheu began catching wild bullfrogs and selling them to New Orleans restaurants in the 1880s; soon after, the Weills Brothers started exporting Louisiana frog legs all over the U.S. and to France. And, by 1937, the Louisiana Frog Company Plant shipped out more than 500,000 frogs.Awais

Newspaper articles around the country touted success stories, and companies attracted investors to cash in on frog farming. As local populations dwindled, Broel ran ads nationwide, and live frogs began pouring into his cannery. It seemed that the industry was hopping. And then Broel was arrested for fraud. Awais