I hope your long weekend of family and weather was enjoyable. We experimented with drying orange slices to string and our entire house smells delightful. Save yourself the heartache and don’t try kiwi. It dries like little curled bats and looks just about as nice. But lemon, lime and orange come out lovely!

Fresh horrors in the UK this morning where a folks who don’t want beavers back on the landscape apparently still want their fur. This startling headline greeted me this morning:

Shock as dead beaver discovered ‘shot and sheared’ on Broughty Ferry beach

The animal’s carcass was spotted washed ashore by a dog walker last month. It is believed the animal had been shot and skinned before being thrown in the river.

As of May, beavers are a protected species in Scotland, making it is illegal to kill the animal or destroy established dams and lodges without a licence.

But several reports of beaver’s being persecuted unlawfully have emerged in Tayside, despite the protection.

A dog walker, who spotted the animal, said: “I was walking the dog on the beach when I came across the dead beaver but was shocked to see it had been shot and skinned. It looked like it had been washed ashore.

Beavers can cause issues for Tayside farmers since their release into the region as they are said to undermine river banks and block drainage.

Landowners can obtain a “lethal control” licence from the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

But in Perth last week, TV presenter and conservationist Chris Packham called on tighter legislation to prevent landowners using loopholes to cull the creatures.

He said the landowners’ applications must be heavily scrutinised to prove beavers are causing damage to human interests.

Good lord. The most horrific part of this story for me is that some asshole farmer is going to keep that beaver skin on his floor or wall and brag to his friends about how he finished him off. All I can say to that is JUST WAIT until climate change means you don’t get enough water for your crops and then think about all the water-savers you’ve killed.