Napa kit — Napa beaver kit – Photo Rusty Cohn

Who was it that said “The more things change, the more they stay the same”? Here at beaver central we say that every day. Sometimes this familiarity is delightful, like when Rusty sends me excitedly the first photo of a kit he took recently. Or when the PRMCC commission gives full approval for another festival at last night’s meeting. Or when a reporter from Carmel calls me excitedly to discuss how to attract beavers to the area.

And other reruns are less cheerful, such as the grisly discussion they’re starting in England over the unauthorized beavers in Devon.

River’s rare beavers face cull threat

A family of beavers is living in the River Otter but campaigners believe they are in danger because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not view them as native.

They claim that Natural England is drawing up plans for a cull even though a programme has begun to reintroduce the animals into the wild in Scotland.

Derek Gow, an ecologist and member of the Beaver Advisory Committee for England, said he feared Defra was using the threat of a rare parasite tapeworm (Echinococcus multilocularis) found in the European beaver to remove the three animals in Devon.

The tapeworm can be passed to humans who handle infected animals or eat contaminated food. It is known to cause a headache, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Although it is not known where the Devon beavers come from, Mr Gow believes that trapping them for testing could be traumatic and risks killing the young.

“Trapping and culling these animals would be an appalling thing to do. The risk of this parasite is very small as it is only found in directly imported adult animals,” Mr Gow told The Independent. “The real reason Defra wants to trap them or kill them has nothing to do with beavers; it’s to do with pressure from a small minority of angling organisations.”

When the story that they were thinking about the possibility of maybe killing the intrepid beavers who moved into the river Otter trickled out, the officials got an earful from upset residents who are fond of the brave recolonizers and did some quick back-peddling.

“There are no plans whatsoever to cull beavers. We are currently working out plans for the best way forward and any decision will be made with the welfare of the beavers in mind.”

Hahaha, just in case you wondered what it looks like when someone speaks out of both sides of their mouth, here’s your example. With three international papers running the story today, you can bet he’ll be equivocating more soon. Still, I can’t help thinking of the grinch.