I couldn’t resist looking for other mentions of the beaver-mural-teapot-tempest-fest so I raided the google. Lucky for the city the story cleverly broke at the end of the month so there are only two pages of articles under “October News”. But if you wander about a bit, there are lots of odd treasures to be found.
Close to home the Bay-Area Observer got my attention with this nice introduction
You’ve got to feel for artist Mario Alfaro, whom Martinez officials last week ordered to paint over the beaver he included on a public mural because some of the town’s leaders didn’t think it belonged on the same canvas as hometown heroes John Muir and Joe DiMaggio. (That’s the mural, before the beaver was painted over, from the pro-Beaver MartinezBeavers.org’s blog, Worth a Dam. You almost have to squint to see it near the lower right corner.)
Thanks for the shout-out Ron! We appreciate our beaver brothers by the bay! There’s also the quirky animal-symbology and UFO blog collection by Regan which includes this:
I wasn’t sure where to post this (maybe I’ll post it at Pulp Jello which badly needs to be updated anyway) but since it has to do with animals, in a round about way, sort of, I’m posting it here. It seems art has offended bureaucrats in Martinez, Calif who commissioned an artist to paint a mural for the city. They demanded the artist, Mario Alfaro, paint over a beaver he included in the mural:
Or this oddly worded (I assume translated?) piece on the Global Topic Blog here
Officials in Martinez, Calif., systematic an artist to paint over a picture of a beaver he enclosed in a picture he was consecrated to emanate for a city. Martinez officials pronounced they had artist Mario Alfaro paint over a beaver since a animal, while dear by city residents, does not go on a downtown picture alongside images of Martinez locals including John Muir and Joe DiMaggio, a San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. “Everyone’s observant we hatred beavers, though this is not about fondness beavers or not fondness beavers,” Public Works Director Dave Scola said. “We went by a extensive formulation process, and never once did anyone ask for a beaver. Not one chairman said, ‘Hey, we have an idea, let’s put a beaver in there.’”
A San Francisco Chronicle? Which one have I been reading? And I guess if the ‘chairman’ doesn’t say it, then don’t come crying to us! The thought of that sentence coming directly from our DPW is so enjoyable I may have to read the article aloud again and again.
Looking for that picture seemed to get a lot of folks to the website, and its always nice to have visitors, even the kind you wouldn’t necessarily invite to stay for dinner. 
This rough and tumble thread at Livejournal – (most of which reminded me why members of the 14 year old male community don’t actually have many dates) – eventually made me smile at this post under the handle ‘Layweed’:
“The mural’s like 3 feet high and on the side of a fricken fence? Good grief, I thought it was like a wall mural or something. Someone really hates beavers.”
Yes, Layweed. Yes they do.
So much so that I’m pretty sure the only beaver mural that would ever be approved in Martinez is this one from the Washington Post office, this is a study for its design on file with the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. It’s titled “Trapper with Beaver”.
