The Comox Valley family who didn’t want their beavers drowned has all the makings of a pretty sweeping movement. Lovely young woman, smart well-written mother and a great deal of public interest. The story of the family ‘that doesn’t want its beaver drowned’ now has been sold to most newspapers in the country. There are nearly 1400 friends on facebook, the girls have been interviewed on CBC and many other stations. if you google ‘comox valley beavers’ you get a page of news stories, (including some crazy letter written by a California woman named Heidi something).
I passed the story along to our friends at fur-bearer defenders who wrote to pledge funds for building a beaver deceiver, there are also offers to relocate onto existing properties. Joey is more interested in getting the policy changed for ALL beavers, which is amazing and just might happen. There are enough lovers of this national symbol not to want to allow them to be routinely drowned. I don’t think flow devices are well accepted enough to trigger a national policy change, but I can forsee a day when conibear traps are outlawed, just like Massachusetts.
You might not want to watch this trapping video but it was important for me to see. The thing that impressed me the most was the silence of these deaths. It helped me to think about what’s happening and how the animal views it. I’m not sure things get better in when conibears are outawed: where the beaver is trapped in a springing suitcase and hauled onto the bank before waiting until the morning to get shot in the head.Trapping is cruel. Period.
Faster is better but not at all is best.
