Amherst no longer killing pesky beavers

This weekend I received a phone call from Amherst New York where they were getting ready for their own city council meeting about the plan to trap beavers gnawing memorial trees. She wanted advice for how to present their opposition and how to offer reasonable solutions. Beavers: Wetlands & Wildlife was on the case as well and had been talking to the council and reporters. Well today there’s good news:

Amherst to stop trapping, drowning beavers

The Town of Amherst will no longer trap and drown nuisance beavers in response to the public outcry against what one animal rights organization called “tax-funded torture.”

At the board’s meeting Monday, representatives with the Animal Advocates of Western New York and Animal Allies of Western New York criticized the town’s “inhumane” treatment of beavers and said they would be glad to work with the town to find non-lethal methods for dealing with the tree-taking dam builders.

Whoohoo! Great work all! I was told the meeting was a 3:00 pm and hard for anyone employed to attend, but obviously they made it work. I remember how excited we all felt after the November 7th meeting, lo these many years ago, and I’m a little jealous of the enthusiasm they must be enjoying right now!  They even had their own nay-sayers to play the comic villain of the melodrama:

Some Amherst residents who live along the water, however, say they didn’t have any issue with beaver trapping. Lenora Canna, a North Forest Road resident whose property backs up to Ellicott Creek, said she had three trees worth hundreds of dollars taken down by beavers since she moved into her home 17 years ago.

She asked the town for help last year in getting rid of the beavers damaging her private property and the town refused, she said. So she began wrapping her trees in barbed wire and hired a trapper with her own money. He placed a trap out in her backyard and caught a large 55-pound beaver within a couple weeks, she said. Damage has been mitigated since then.

Canna said she’s sorry the town is ending its own trapping practices. Beavers are active all year long, and have damaged both her trees and bushes, she said.

“They are a nuisance,” she said. “They are a glorified rat as far as I can see.”

Boo! Hiss! Throw popcorn! I love the scene where the villian ties the beaver to the railroad tracks and then it gets rescued just in time! Ohhhh wait,  wrong movie! Still, what a great end to a fantastic tale (tail?) and it all started because of a very interesting verbal slip from the DNR employee  who went on camera accidentally mentioned that trapping was humane because the beavers ‘drown’.

Obviously he never got the memo that said in bold letters “Always lie to animal rights groups by saying that conibear traps INSTANTLY CRUSH the beavers so they feel no pain’. Maybe he was sick that day. Maybe he had just stepped out. Maybe he is a Worth A Dam secret supporter. Whatever the reason once he said ‘drown’ – for an animal that can hold its breath for 15 minutes – the jig (as they say) was up!

With these changes, she said, “people can come to the park and think of the beauty and peace of the park and not think of the beavers struggling to get to the surface and drowning.”

Once again,  a thundering round of applause and a very deep bow for Amherst and for Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife! Congratulations from all your friends in Martinez!