I probably went golfing with my parents twice in my life, maybe less than that. I must have been about 8 because that seems like when you are old enough to do things you’re parents want to teach you but not so old that you think its stupid to do what you’re parents teach you. I liked the sand traps.
I remember thinking it was very annoying, But I might have been more interested if I had seen this:
Golfers who save drowning beaver from trap find their compassionate efforts are a crime
BURLEY — A group of golfers at the River’s Edge Golf Course who released a drowning beaver from a trap set in water didn’t know their actions were a crime.
Fran Jamison of Paul was golfing with family members Aug. 29. As they approached the green on the fourth hole at the city’s owned course, they saw some other golfers bent down by the water hazard. As they approached, they could see one of the golfers holding a beaver’s head out of the water with a golf club.
Jamison’s group helped them free the beaver from the foot trap.
“It’s a misdemeanor to let an animal out of a trap, but we didn’t get cited,” Jamison said. “I was shocked to find that out.”
I like the idea of a bunch of plaid wearing men bending down and saving a beaver from a trap before they found out their compassion was illegal. What was that song from South Pacific about racism? You have to be carefully taught?
Jamison said there weren’t any signs up at the course to alert golfers that the traps were set just under the water’s surface. Idaho Fish & Game Regional Communications Manager Terry Thompson said the traps had been placed by USDA APHIS Idaho Wildlife Services, which may trap animals, even out of season, when wildlife damages property.
“It was done at the request of the Burley golf course because of depredation,” Thompson said of the use of the traps.
The beaver was on a green where there are “all kinds of trees,” Scott Draper, golf pro at the River’s Edge Golf Course said.
“Trees at the golf course are at a premium and we want to protect them,” Draper said.
We like the trees, but we’re lazy bastards and can’t bother wrapping or sand painting them. It’s easier just to kill things. You know that right?
Thompson said Fish and Game works with Wildlife Services in the state on wildlife depredation issues. Thompson said beavers are “very good at cutting down vegetation to build their dams, and there are a lot of trees at the golf course.
“Trapping is one of the tools we have to deal with it,” he said.
Thompson said although it is against the law to tamper with or disturb a hunting trap that does not belong to them, the individuals in this case were not cited with the misdemeanor offense.
“We used education as a tool and issued a verbal warning,” Thompson said.
Not for the beavers though. Because that would be stupid.
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