Sometimes you find a beaver story on the news and it melts your heart and stiffens your sinews with the inspiring community outpouring of support it elicits. And sometimes you read a story with such indifferent, abject, and ignorant cruelty that it turns your stomach with a seismic shudder. But every so often you get the story that does both at exactly the same time, like this from Stallings North Carolina.
Residents in a Stallings neighborhood are upset after a family of six beavers was trapped and killed, and a picture of the carcasses was posted online. People who live in Fairfield Plantation said the beavers had been a part of the neighborhood for years.
“The beaver dam was huge. It was about five feet tall. It was really a good, interesting nature lesson for my grandchildren,” said resident Jeff Hatch.
But the Fairfield Plantation homeowners’ association was concerned about the beavers’ dams in the neighborhood creek. HOA members said the beavers were threatening the hardwood forest, and that flooding from the backup of water was creating a deep water hazard for children in the local park.
Dam. Another dead beaver story, you are probably thinking. Why does Heidi write about such morbid subjects all the time and bum us out? And if that was the END of the story I would partly understand your muted disdain as you moved about your day onto other subjects. The economy perhaps or the primaries….
Ahh but there’s more.
Last week, the neighborhood HOA president sent out a newsletter, informing residents, “We hired a trapper who apprehended six, four of whose mug shots can be seen at fairfieldnc.com.”
The president, Larry Evans, then posted a graphic picture of four of the beaver carcasses on the website, but quickly took it down a day later after a resident complained.
That’s right. The tone-deaf HOA president not only decided to have the heroes killed, he decided to post the photograph on his website. (I guess since that dead tiger photo from Ohio was so popular!) One can only shudder to think what he might have posted after the rat trapper came or after having the sewer line succefully snaked, or a criminal apprehended.
We might as well face it. For the rest of time there will be abysmal people with cell phones who have the kinds of impulse-ridden brains that drive them to do horrific, inhumane things and then that one neuron devoted to understanding how technology works that makes them want to take a photo and post it on line. Look what I did! Isn’t it cool?
Well, if you would like to explain to Mr. Evans how not cool his decision was, you might consider dropping him an affectionate note here. And if that rousing earthquake didn’t just shake your bad mood away, I got this photo from our beaver friend Ian Timothy yesterday.
This is obviously the work of a yearling or two, trying to prove themselves. I can imagine the scornful looks from Dad saying ‘son, that’s too big’ and Jr. setting his jaw firmly and chewing and chewing and chewing….Mom comes by hours later and says “honey why don’t you try a smaller tree?” and he hunches his shoulders and keeps chewing and chewing and chewing….his brother comes by in the morning and says “aren’t you done yet?” and he says “SHUTUP” and keeps chewing and chewing and chewing….
I will remember this photo as a lesson every time I take on a project that is impossible to finish! Thanks Ian! And episodes 4-7 will be featured at next weekends Colorado Environmental Film Festival. Since Sherri Tippie lives 15 minutes away I know Twigs will be in excellent company!
