Siberia has just announced that it will kill 5500 beavers to “prevent the spread of disease”. No word yet on what disease exactly they’re stopping, or why a disease that beavers caught in their water system wouldn’t be a problem already without the beavers.
5,500 Siberian Beavers to Be Culled to Avoid Disease Outbreak
MOSCOW, January 24 (RIA Novosti) – Several thousand beavers in western Siberia are facing a cull by the summer in a drive to avoid an outbreak of disease, local media reported Friday.
Gazeta Kemerova news website cited a statement by the Kemerovo Region’s environmental protection department as saying as many as 5,500 beavers could be killed to thin out the ranks of the animal.
Overpopulation of beavers is also reportedly responsible for numerous road-flooding incidents caused by their dams. No up-to-date information on the beaver population of Kemerovo Region is available.
Ohhhhhh. The dangerous FLOODING DISEASE! Gosh, people were really scared of that contagion in Martinez. (I hear it’s catching.) And please re-read that last line. We have no idea how many beavers there are in Siberia we just know there are too many!
Wikipedia tells me that Siberia is 5.1 million square miles, and most of Russia. Not sure how they’ll even keep track of the numbers with all those dead beavers.
The rodent is a bigger hazard than it looks.
Last April, an irritated beaver killed a man in western Belarus. The animal bit through a major artery while the man was taking a selfie with the rodent, causing fatal wounds to the photographer.
That’s right, we will justify our bad decision by referencing his. The man in Belarus should never have tried to pick up that beaver and his friends should have completed the second grade and learned how to apply a tourniquet, but that’s what happens when men make mistakes: beavers get killed. 5500 or however many we feel like. Never mind that the population will likely rebound and we will have solved nothing. Never mind that there are hundreds of Europeans who could teach us how to install flow devices. Never mind that Russia needs clean water as much as any other country.
Our minds (such as they are) are made up.
——————————————————————————
Now Lithuania is just a little east of Siberia, and I received a nice note this morning on a donation from an artist there. Giedrė Karramba creates a miniature animal zoo from sterling silver. I asked for these earrings and she has kindly wrote back offering a pair of earrings and a pendant.
Just remember when you wear them, they were made in Lithuania so this adorable pair is castor fiber.
