Let’s say, (and why not) that you’re a busy executive mommy searching frantically for your keys when you see them in the smeary hands of your toddler who is also wearing your shoes and pretending to talk on your cell phone. It’s not the child care you expected from your husband or nanny, but face it, it’s adorable. And you wind up smiling a little wider than you meant to.
That’s how I felt when I saw this story from Michigan city, Indiana.
ABC57 News – See the Difference Michiana
Community concerned after local beavers killed
Signs at a Michigan City pond read, “Trapped and Killed.”
They explain the fate of two beavers living in Streibel pond, after
a city department decided beavers were too much of a nuisance and took action.
But some people in town are upset, saying crews took it too far,and some even say its “inhumane.”
The Sanitary District’s foreman immediately hung up the phone after our reporter told him he was with ABC 57, we went to the DNR for an explanation.
If you take a walk along Striebel Pond in Michigan City, you’ll likely see signs that say, “The two beavers that lived here were trapped and KILLED.”
Ahh you plucky little Michigan city tykes! Never mind the fact that if every place beavers were killed bore a sign the state would be absolutely littered with them. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. And this was a great one. I especially like the part where the news team called sanitation and they hung up. They aren’t exactly skilled at handling press inquiries.
“How? Why? Was there a full attempt at scaring these beavers to relocate? Or were they just trapped and immediately put down its senseless.”
To help answer those questions, ABC 57 stopped by the Department of Natural Resources in Michigan City.”
“Beavers for their homes like higher water so they’ll dam up the water, pack mud sticks in a certain area and it backs up that water,” said DNR Commander Shawn Brown.
Brown says the Sanitary District trapped and killed the beavers to prevent water levels from rising and flooding neighboring homes. Worley doesn’t deny the beaver nuisance but she says more humane measures should have been taken.
You hear that? Yes, beavers are a nuisance! But you should have ‘scared them first’ rather than killing them. Because you know how easily beavers give up on things, the big sissies. Forget what they do for wildlife and water storage and just scare them away with clown masks. Because that’s nicer.
This is the problem I have with the word HUMANE and its rugged misuse by wildlife advocates everywhere. It bothered me when the city said the beavers were going to be “euthanized’ too. It’s not like they were in any pain. Personally It doesn’t really matter to me whether the beavers die humanely or INhumanely. Or whether you scare them away with tax returns.
I want them to stay and I want you to deal with it. Period.
Hopefully Michigan city residents will use the google to find about beavers and happen upon the story of a certain California town that didn’t kill them or scare them and was richly rewarded with better wildlife and a cleaner creek.
A girl can dream, can’t she?
