Government softens stance on Devon’s wild beavers
The environmental charity Friends of the Earth claimed the government, which is planning to trap the animals, has softened its stance towards the beavers, believed to be the first to live in the wild in England for centuries.
Until now the government has argued that the beavers are a non-native, invasive species that could be carrying a disease and should be removed from their Devonshire home and tested. It has been at pains to insist it will not cull the beavers but will find a home in captivity for them.
FoE has launched legal proceedings challenging the government’s plans, claiming that because Britain was part of the beavers’ natural range before they were hunted to extinction, they are protected under European law. Most local people who share the banks of the River Otter with the beavers appear to want them to be left alone.
The charity said on Friday that the government had told it the plan now is to test the beavers for disease closer to their west country home rather than 300 miles away in York as it had intended. FoE said this would make it easier for the animals to be re-released in Devon.
Tested closer to home is good. Released back into the River Otter is good. And admitting they’re native is good. But I’m not going to be content after DEFRA’s own released emails says EM has never been a threat and they weren’t really worried about it anyway. My guess is they’re hoping that one or both beaver adults will die from the stress of being captured. The family will be separated in the process and their beaver problem will be over without a huge battle.
Friends of the Earth is promoting its own victory by deftly moving the goal posts. And using the whole charade as a massive fund raising event even though the only thing it did was send a letter. And DEFRA is letting them take credit for preventing the calamity because they are eager to get angry citizens off their miserable backs.
A spokeswoman for Defra said: “Our priority has been to ensure humane treatment for the beavers while safeguarding human health, so we’ll be testing the beavers close to the River Otter which will be better for their welfare than moving them elsewhere.
First of all, you’re lying. You aren’t worried about EM. And the Guardian is allowing you to pretend to be worried even after they already reported on the damning emails that proved you weren’t worried in the first place.
“PHE (Public Health of England) accept that the main risk of an incursion is likely to be through international movements of pets, both legal and illegal… Therefore they are not convinced that the three Devon beavers necessarily represent a significant increase in overall risk,” a Defra official emailed colleagues after meeting with Public Health England.
This was only a month ago. Do you really think no one can remember what you wrote thirty days ago and you are now free to make up any lie you want? Don’t bother answering that. You already have. Second of all, everyone is acting like this merits a ‘game over’ happy dance when it hasn’t even happened yet!
“Natural England is currently considering an application for the beavers to be returned to the River Otter and is expected to make a decision soon.”
What rubbish.
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there was a city named Martinez where the overlords wanted to get rid of some beavers. All the people asked them not to kill them. They asked so much that the poor burdened representatives couldn’t walk down the street, pick up their dry-cleaning or step into a restroom without someone asking. Their lives became living hells. The city manager retired early because of the hell. Their higher-ups repeatedly said that they’re were no other options in California, it was kill or be flooded. But people kept complaining and somehow magically there was suddenly this ‘option’ to move the beavers alive. (That is, 2 out of a family of six).
And I was quietly told it was a victory and not to make a fuss.
But guess what? I’m not the only one who saw through that pasty charade, even through the media swallowed it whole and begged for seconds. Some 200 people stood up at that November 7th meeting and said, we don’t want you to kill our beavers. And we don’t want you to MOVE our beavers either. You need to find another way to fix this problem.
I’m going to guess that there might be some good folk in England who know better, too.
And since we’ve seen this all before, you need to see something today that you’ve never seen before. In fact, you need to see something that no one’s ever seen before. That very probably has never been near anything with eyes. This is the first photo taken in this history of history from the surface of a comet.
