Hello everyone! I'm glad to have found this forum. I have an interesting story for how I acquired a Bufo Alvarius, in Utah, and thought everyone might enjoy it.
Last week my wife came home from work with a container under her arm. She held it up and I saw it was a toad. She said she was walking back to work from lunch when she saw him sitting on the sidewalk. It was pretty cold and it looked like it was dead. She loves animals (especially reptiles, amphibians, and birds) so she picked him up. She said he was really cold, but she thought he might still be alive, so she put him between her arm and her side and took him into work. After awhile he started moving around a bit and then he opened his eyes. She was pretty thrilled that she was able to save him, so she put him in a container and brought him home. I glanced at him and thought he must be a Woodhouse or Bufo Boreas (I'm no expert). Boy was I wrong!
We were pretty busy for a few days so I had to put off officially identifying him. During that time we managed to lose him in the house. After searching for a few hours, and giving up, I stumbled across him in the basement sitting on top of a box like he was just waiting for me to save him. We ran out and picked up everything we needed to keep him (we were just planning on housing him for the winter since he seemed to be having trouble). Once we got him setup in his new digs I started researching his type online. After a few minutes I figured out he was a Bufo Alvarius. Then I read up on what they are. Needless to say I was pretty shocked. I have no use for the things this toad is most famous for and decided I needed to figure out if it was even legal for me to have him. That's how I stumbled upon this website. From everything I've read I guess I can safely assume that it's legal for me to have him (probably a shades of gray kind of legal) since I didn't take him from another state and I have zero idea of his origin. That also has lead us to decide that we're probably keeping Sprocket (we named him) indefinitely since he probably wouldn't survive in Northern Utah on his own. I just can't figure out how he got here. There is a small meadow area behind where my wife works, so I suspect someone must have got tired of keeping him and released him there. He must have not liked the way the temperatures were turning and decided to look for a warmer climate in the city.
Anyway, thanks for reading. I plan to ask a few questions and update a bit when I have more time.