I just though of something.

[LizStreithorst]

Thank God I wasn't there when the poor things were pithed.  How do they do it, Bill?

[Mugwump]

A frogs heart (and the hearts of many vertebrates) can beat without a functioning brain.
I have had hearts of embryonic fish beating in tissue culture (without any body attached) for days.

Resembles some people I know.

LOL.....

[BillT]

Thank God I wasn't there when the poor things were pithed.  How do they do it, Bill?

Pithing is kind of nasty. I prefer cold, or drugs, or beheading.

To pith a frog you stick a needle in the base of the skull where the vertebral column meets the skull. The needle goes into the brain, you wiggle it around which scrambles the brain's nervous system so it can't function anymore. The frog should at this point have no consciousness. Then you stick the needle down the vertebral column which destroys the neurons in the spinal cord. This stop reflexive movements which can occur with the brain or awareness. The frog does random movements caused by damaging the nervous system when doing this which is kind of gross.