Animal welfare officers are investigating alleged cruelty to a toad in a Hamilton bar during Sunday?s World Cup final.

Witnesses say the creature was trapped in a washing basket and had alcohol poured on it by Italian fans in an apparent jibe at their French football opponents.

Beaman Smith, an inspector at the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPCA), last night urged anyone who saw the incident to contact the charity or Police.

?It?s not acceptable,? he said. ?It is totally inappropriate as far as we are concerned. I?m sure they were having a good time and had no idea or didn?t think about what they were doing.

?But just because it was a frog doesn?t mean that it wasn?t cruel. If you are going to pour alcohol on a frog it is going to burn their skin. That?s not cool.?

He said the charity had received only one complaint ? from a radio listener who heard about the incident on the 1340 AM David Lopes show. Insp. Smith was told the incident took place in either Little Venice wine bar or Splash nightclub, both on Bermudiana Road. A spokesman for Little Venice denied the incident took place there. Marino Ramazio, manager of Splash, said he and his staff did not see anything. He added that he was upset when he heard about the alleged cruelty. ?We had a lot of people. Some people, they just do stupid things. I?m not here to babysit my guests but if I saw something like that I would probably just say ?no, please don?t do anything like that?.

?I was told each time they scored a goal they poured alcohol on top of the frog.?

A witness who watched the game in Splash told he saw a pink basket wrapped tightly with cellophane being passed around the bar.

?There was something moving in there,? said the man, who asked not to be named. ?It sort of hopped a bit and then I realised what it was.? The man claimed he saw an Italian fan pouring Heineken on the toad. ?I?m assuming it was some form of anti-French gag ? but taking the whole ?frog? thing that literally is, quite frankly, just not right.?

Insp. Smith said he had spoken to the owners of Splash and Little Venice but now needed to talk to soccer fans who were inside the venues on Sunday afternoon. ?Somebody knew what was happening,? he said. ?There is not a lot we can do at the moment because who is going to say ?I poured the alcohol?.

?We have got to have witnesses or we have got to have pictures. If we find out who committed this offence and can prove it, we will go to court. It?s cruelty and disrespecting life.

?They wanted to humiliate the French and that?s exactly what they did with this poor frog that had nothing to do with this. We will not tolerate using animals for human entertainment.?

P.c. Yvonne Ricca, animal protection officer for Bermuda Police Service, said she was aware of the allegations and had asked the SPCA to investigate.

?It is cruel if they are pouring beer and it?s a little frog or toad. Somebody knows something so it?s just a matter of who is going to come forward. This is the first time I have ever heard of someone calling about a frog. We want to know is it still alive? Where is it??