Beavers Kill Cows and Goodbye to 2014

It’s time for the annual year in review for beavers, but before we bask in our accomplishments, lets have one more dose of beaver-stupid from Iowa.

Beaver dam may explain death of 17 head of cattle

MOVILLE — Seventeen cows recently perished, apparently victims of a beaver dam. One bull and 16 bred females died, all owned by Dave Groepper of rural Kingsley. He found all of them in a creek bed early Dec. 6.

“I think it’s safe to say that if a beaver dam wasn’t there, we’d be in good shape,” Groepper says.

Beavers build their dam on the Davis farm one mile west of Moville. The beavers’ dam work slowed water flow in the creek, allowing 3 to 4 feet of water to back up and sit largely still immediately west of the dam. Ice formed atop this pool. All indications are that of 30 head of cattle in this herd, 17 of them drowned. It appears they walked out onto the ice, broke through and couldn’t get out.

First off, lets give credit where credit is due. I’ve been in the beaver biz for a long time, but that is the very best bit of bogus beaver blame I’ve ever encountered – better than beavers causing power outages, beavers starting fires and even beavers destroying medical files. Iowa you win. You’re the very best at this game. Bar none.

Second, why is it that you are so boldly willing to infer that beavers drown cows, while you’ve been so unwilling to say that smoking causes cancer, human activity causes global warming, abstinence counseling in isolation causes teen pregnancy, and voting ID laws target democrats?

You, Iowa, have a mysterious understanding of cause and effect. That must be why we let you vote first. Does it help to collect insurance money if you pin the blame on the beavers rather than the humans who were in charge of those cows?

Is their beaver insurance? Of course not. These animals are too dangerous, no company would carry that risk.

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The year sure felt busy, but I’m never sure until I go back through the scrap book and see what happened. One thing’s certain: every time I feel like beavers have finally turned a significant corner and there’s no going back or we we’ve reached a tipping point or the top of the hill finally – there’s always another hurdle. Always. Beaver accomplishments happen in slow motion. Like the tar sands. (Or cows underwater.)

But we’re getting closer. Click on any story for the link to the article.