The Devon beavers have all kinds of allies. They have farmers, and shop keepers, and school children, and politicians. And their number is growing. When the people lead the leaders will follow and Martinez knows first hand that is true about beavers.
Claire Wright is the Independent (unaffiliated) member of the Ottery County Council. I assumed she’d be pro-beaver until the day she was elected, but apparently I misjudged her commitment, because she won the election and she’s still advocating beaver sanity. Here’s her blog post today:
Why DEFRA should abandon plans to capture our beavers
On Friday I received a letter from Lord De Mauley via Mr Swire, confirming that DEFRA intends to capture them this year.
Friends of the Earth has launched a legal challenge on the basis that the animals are protected by EU law and so cannot be lawfully captured. So now, the government, with its massive financial problems could face a huge legal bill, on top of the capture and testing programme bill, which is likely to cost tens of thousand of pounds….. and for what?
To remove a group of native animals that local people have fallen in love with and that are living happily and harmlessly on a local river.
Our beavers are the only wild beavers in England. Leave them alone!!
The freedom of the beavers is now so popular in England that the East Devon MP has also asked for them to be returned to the Otter (albeit after first testing them to make sure the don’t have the parasite no one is really worried about).
Hugo Swire: Return beavers to the River Otter
East Devon MP Hugo Swire has called on Defra and Natural England to process a licence that will allow beavers to return to the River Otter, providing that they prove disease free after their capture and testing.
In July, Mr Swire held a meeting with Defra Minister Lord de Mauley along with representatives from the Devon Wildlife Trust to discuss this matter.
Mr Swire said: ‘The logical way to proceed now is for Natural England to capture the beavers and test them for the dangerous Echinococcus multilocularis (EM) parasite.
‘In the event of the beavers testing negative, I believe that they should then be released back into the River Otter, under licence, and monitored for a specific period. This, of course, must be done in close consultation with the local landowners and farmers’
Otherwise known as the “In the event that people do exactly what we want, I think we should let them” answer. This wan support was not good enough for the robust Ms. Wright who responded with:
It is encouraging that Mr Swire is doing something to put pressure on the seemingly paranoid DEFRA, however, the answer is surely to abandon the expensive and unnecessary capture plans, rather than risk the animals becoming ill or dying in captivity either before or after they are operated on and tested for a disease that Public Health England are apparently unconcerned about them having.
If the kits are separated from the parents, they will probably die, either in captivity or on the river. They rely on their parents for warmth and food.
I have asked Mr Swire twice now if he will urge DEFRA to abandon the plans, to no avail.
I’m trying to imagine Rob Schroder and Mike Menesini scrambling to show that they defend our beavers more than their opponents. (Give me minute, that’s a nice image and it makes me giggle.) The beavers in the river Otter must be really, really popular. More popular than the the beavers in Martinez. More popular than ice cream in July. I mean like Beatles popular. 
Back in California I’ve been hard at work on a grant for our 8th festival. Yesterday I heard confirmation from artist Marc Poulin that he is excited to make buttons for our event and going to hand design the images himself, offering us an amazing deal. Each child will get a burlap tail where earned pins can be displayed, and since the price is lower we can offer 20 designs and involve more exhibits.
Marc has generously donated to our auction in the past and is excited about coming on board. You’ve seen his creativity in boutiques, cutting edge shops and pet stores across the country. His designs are made here by his team at his warehouse in Oakland California and no one ever looks at his artwork without smiling. Here, I’ll prove it.
If I were you I would find a child to bring along with me on August 1st, because you are going to want one of everything. Thanks Marc!
