{"id":23493,"date":"2025-10-22T00:00:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T08:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=23493"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T00:12:44","slug":"frog-epidemic-takes-root-in-portland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/frog-epidemic-takes-root-in-portland\/","title":{"rendered":"Frog epidemic takes root in Portland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A photo of a protester at Salem\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d event with a sign that said \u201cFROGS TOGETHER STRONG.\u201d | Photo courtesy of Maria Rinella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Oct 22 2025 | <\/span>Hannah Field | Editor-in-Chief<\/span><\/p>\n

Portland, Oregon saw hundreds of protesters reportedly donning inflatable animal costumes at the city\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest Oct. 18, one of more than 2,000 \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests that took place across America. Organizers of the \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests estimate nearly seven million attendees nationwide, with Portland being a news-garnering hotspot after Donald Trump won his push for National Guard troops to be deployed into the city to defend federal agents, pending further legal approval.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prior to Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest, one Portland local drew premature attention for posting up Oct. 2 outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building just off of I-5.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seth Todd, 24, was wearing a large, puffy, green inflatable frog costume outside of the facility, when the protest escalated \u2014 resulting in a federal agent directing a stream of chemical spray into the costume\u2019s air vent. According to Oregon Live, Todd went to help another protester who was allegedly shoved to the ground by a federal agent when he was assaulted with the spray. Despite the altercation, Todd claimed to be fine, stating that he\u2019s \u201cdefinitely had spicier tamales\u201d than what was directed into his costume.<\/span><\/p>\n

Caught on camera and uploaded to TikTok, a whirlwind of media attention pointed at Todd, dubbing him with various names: \u201cAntifa Frog,\u201d \u201cPortland Frog\u201d and \u201cProtest Frog\u201d being some of the more common aliases. In his wake, more frogs showed up the following evening at the facility in support. Later in the month, numbers doubled and tripled as frogs took to the streets, spanning Oregon\u2019s multitude of protests.<\/span>
<\/span>Various frog paraphernalia popped up across the country in tandem with the \u201cNo Kings\u201d protests, broadcasting support and allegiance with Todd after he began a motion of peace and resistance using inflatable animal costumes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The future of said inflatables is undecided, with the expected utilization of National Guard troops in Portland inching closer and closer. News organizations have noted a consistent presence of \u201chundreds\u201d rallying in the evening outside Portland\u2019s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building as recently as Sunday, Oct. 19. Protesters and counter-protesters engaged in physical altercations, leading to multiple arrests by police; at another time, federal agents deployed tear gas into the crowd.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite rising tensions, the response from protesters has yet to quell. A newly-founded organization titled Operation Inflation asks for $35 donations to fund more costumes for protests against ICE, signifying the growing movement that started with Todd, and likely won\u2019t end with him.<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n

Contact the author at <\/span>howleditorinchief@mail.wou.edu<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Frog epidemic takes root in Portland","_seopress_titles_desc":"Scheduled national anti-Trump protest takes to the streets \u2014 drawing inspiration from Portland\u2019s \u2018Antifa frog\u2019","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23499,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23493\/revisions\/23499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}