I got a few heads up on this report last night from Oklahoma. So lets look at this report out of Owasso. I’m going to preface this with a caution. This is a shockingly ignorant video, which we can handle and which I’m happy to talk about. But it is also a stunningly cruel one, and I say this as a woman whose watched barbaric behavior towards beavers for four long years. If you think of yourself as someone with a soft heart (Jean I mean you!) you should not watch it, and I’ll do my best to summarize the stupid so we can take it on together.
Alright. If you watched it I’ll give you a moment to recover and a baby duck to take your mind off it. Isn’t this adorable? If you’re skipping it you’ll probably enjoy this anyway.
Better? Basically this news clip shows a park where beavers are eating trees (horrors) and a manly trapper (Reginald Murray of Oklahoma Wildlife Control) comes and saves the day. It shows him setting traps near their lodge, carrying and disposing of the bodies, and demonstrating their evil incisors. Reginald loves wildlife. He doesn’t hate beavers, of course not! Apparently he likes them so much he does the same thing with them that the Romans did with the Christians.
He also has shares some very colorful facts with an unquestioning media. Such as noting that “shooting beavers doesn’t work because they’ll just go underground for a couple months and start eating roots!” (No, I’m not kidding!) Beaver-moles! His website says they never tell lies, and never surprise customers with hidden costs. Hmm. Does that mean they talked with Owasso about the fact that trapping out beaver causes a population rebound? Gosh when I think about the 5000 beavers killed by USDA each year in Oklahoma, and the multitudes ‘redirected’ by Reginald, I think there must be one heck of a rebound! Apparently Reginald wasn’t totally happy with his beavers-as-christians footage because wildlife control has posted four times in already on the news discussion site.
When I despair that this maybe this is a incurable regional insensitivity. I see the comments and am comforted.
JoJo – 3/22/2011 10:13 PM
Jesus Christ,I changed the channel as soon as I saw that you sickos @ fox 23 showed a dead wild animal “hello” these animals are doing what they do and to show a dead animal on “live” tv could you have not at least said something along the lines of “the following maybe graphic” I will never ever watch your station again, your obviously catering to the rednecks of this state………..shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!
justin32 – 3/22/2011 9:32 PM
Just watched your story on beavers and was very disappointed. I am an animal lover and to continue to show the dead beaver was over the top. Not to mention the trapper’s response “a dead rat for a cat” then splat he threw it to a big cat at the sanctuary. Additionally, the comments at the end where your reporter stated the trapper had found car engines in a beaver damn, patio tables/chairs and even a rifle. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I beaver pulling a car engine into their damn. I understand they are doing damage but the report could have been put together much better.
The good folk of Oklahoma Wildlife Control have tried to respond to these spurious claims of inhumanity, claiming the news media got it wrong. The stunning thing is that any ‘Roman’ would allow himself to be filmed throwing the ‘Christians’ to the you know whats, and actually think that was good press. i can’t imagine what Reginald thinks the media got wrong. Was it his humanitarian side that was over emphasized?
Let’s hope this outrage prompts someone to take a chance on these new fangled flow devices that have been researched for 20 years and do this the right way. it could happen. I know it’s Fox news, but when I was watching this I couldn’t help but think that maybe someone holding the camera felt exactly the same way about Mr Murray as much as I did and was lulling him into revealing as much of his nature as he could on film. Kind of like I felt when I saw this…
