Reader GTK sent me this today. It’s the USDA death stats by species for the entire country. The entry for beavers reads that 27,289 were killed in 39 states. For mammals, beaver deaths trail only Coyotes and feral pigs. Can you believe that? Only a Coyote or wild pig is less popular than a beaver! 700 beavers in each state, about 100 colonies, less in some and lots more in others. And mind you, this doesn’t count local trappers when land owners can’t be bothered to bring in the feds or grandpa goes out with a shot gun.
If Martinez had killed our beavers by hiring a trapper that statistic wouldn’t even be part of the 27,289. After following beaver death stories for four years I would say that USDA is involved in less the 1 out of every ten cases I read, and there are probably five cases for everyone that makes it into the paper. That means its not a stretch to guess that the US kills more than a half million beavers a year. And this happens routinely in states with droughts and salmon shortages and wildlife loses and erosion problems and states without adequate wetlands.
There are 11 states that didn’t use USDA to kill beavers in 2009. Some of them are probably just flukes. Hawaii has no beavers and doesn’t really count. For some of them like Alaska and Montana we have to assume they just killed them themselves and didn’t bother USDA. With others, like Vermont and New Hampshire, we can guess our friend Skip Lisle had something to do with it. I’m not sure I have any hypotheses about West Virginia but I’d be very interested in yours. Mostly it just means that beaver advocates have a LOT of work to do in the coming years.
I just want to say one more thing about this chart. Over the years I’ve given USDA a fairly hard time, what with the beavers and the acorn woodpeckers and the bird shooting on Christmas near the airport. I have come to realize, in my learning curve of beaver advocacy, that there are truly good wildlife-loving souls working for large beaver-killing agencies and that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I try to give USDA the benefit of the doubt, and not act stunned that the trapping of 27.289 beavers is considered ‘euthanization’. (Were they all in pain?) But LOOK at the fourth column in this chart. “Relocated/Destroyed.”
I don’t know about you, but where I come from those two concepts are really, really different. (Although I guess if the federal government doesn’t recognize the distinction it might help explain the FEMA response to Katrina victims).
Come to think of it, I changed my mind. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about the USDA. I can’t spend 5 minutes on their website without getting physically sick to my stomach. I just stumbled upon the regulations for pain levels in experimental animals (not counting mice and birds mind you) and was completely horrified.
