You know that talk, you’ve been putting off with your co-worker or best friend. It needs to happen but the subject is likely to hurt both of you so you’ve been avoiding it. Meanwhile the pressure is building and building around you, and it’s getting harder to avoid comment.
Well, the ‘Saskatchewan derby’ is that talk.
Saskatchewan is considered a ‘prairie province’ in the middle of Canada. It is the size of Texas with the population if Rhode Island, and it is blessed with nearly as much fresh water as Michigan. It also has the beaver IQ of a three-legged pit bull with an eye infection. And this been going on for more years than I can count.
Saskatchewan is the source of sole dark passage in Jari Osborne’s famous beaver documentary. Long ago its outrageous allegations about the ‘exploding beaver population’ inspired one of my favorite early graphics. While Alberta and Ontario have been making real strides in progressive beaver management, it remains as mentally challenged as it can possibly be. You know those articles you read in National Geographic about tiny tribes in the middle of the amazon that have never seen any part of civilization and don’t know how forks work? Well, every evolutionary stride in beaver management has entirely passed them by. They have only a single tool in their tattered collective box.
And it always looks like a hammer.
Saskatchewan beaver derby sparks fierce debate
It’s the first year for the derby, which runs until May 10. The competition offers cash prizes to hunters or trappers who kill the largest beaver or who come up with the most combined weight in beaver carcasses in 40 days.
The Saskatchewan Trappers Association says the derby helps eliminate bad hunting practices and teaches others how to utilize the entire animal carcass and fur.
It says at this time of year beavers are often killed and left in the field to rot.
“The main thing is that we don’t want to see these animals left in the field of decay and rot without using the entire fur resource,” said spokesman Ken Gartner.
Really? I’m pretty sure that main thing Saskatchewan wants to see is fewer beavers. But if the STA wants to say this ethnic cleansing is to teach hunters to use the entire animal carcass, go ahead. That’s really the best you could come up with? Not preserving a way of life, or allowing other generations to learn from their fathers about trapping or reducing giardisis in the water or some such bullshit? I’m reminded of a favorite Leslie Knope quote.
Fur-bearer defenders suggests you write a letter to Herb Cox, Minister of Environment (regardless of where you live at env.minister@gov.sk.ca). I haven’t yet because I’ve been overwhelmed by the enormity of this level of ignorance. I can’t understand why the entire country isn’t humiliated by recurring national and international discussions of these problem-solving black holes and photos like these blasted all over the internet.
