Puerto Rico asks U.S. to save frogs

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rico's government has asked U.S. authorities to halt a federal program to eradicate the chirping tree frogs loved in their native Puerto Rico but considered a noisy pest in Hawaii.

In Hawaii, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is developing a caffeine-based spray to kill the frogs, known affectionately as "coquis" in Puerto Rico. The caffeine spray would cause cardiac failure in the frogs.

"I urge the department to stop any eradication program that may exist and seek alternatives to the indiscriminate killing of the coqui frog in Hawaii," Anibal Acevedo Vila, Puerto Rico's nonvoting representative in the U.S. Congress, wrote in a letter to the agency Friday.

Acevedo called the frog a "national symbol" and asked for any studies on the environmental impacts of the coquis in Hawaii.