Posted on 12/21/2007 6:46:11 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Bakersfield plans to spare the life of a bothersome beaver blamed for gnawing down nine cottonwood trees along a popular bike path.
Thursday, the California Department of Fish and Game announced it planned to exterminate the beaver, which lives near a path along the Kern River.
Bakersfield Recreation and Parks Department Director Dianne Hoover says she's asking the state wildlife agency to rescind a permit to kill the beaver. Instead, the city wants to relocate the animal or find another alternative solution.
An animal welfare researcher at Indiana University is also talking with local officials to try to find a zoo where the beaver could live in a captive setting.
birds got to fly fish got to swim
yesterday..
State: Beaver must die 12.20.07
.
Felix Adamo
The bike path beaver's days are numbered.
State wildlife officials have issued a permit to kill the rodent that's chewed down nine trees on the Kern River bike path near the Park at River Walk.
Officials with the California Department of Fish and Game said beavers aren't relocated because the animal's instinct is to control water. If moved, the beaver could dam up an irrigation canal or take down trees elsewhere, said local Fish and Game biologist Bill Asserson.
"It's taking a problem from one place and relocating the problem, which is not in the best interest of everyone in general," Asserson said. "It's not a winning situation but a hard fact of nature and its conflict with residential, ornamental and agriculture endeavors."
In general, the method for killing a beaver is to set an underwater trap in which the beaver eventually drowns, said Harry Morse, a Fish and Game spokesman.
The beaver may also be trapped above water and then euthanized. The form of euthanasia is left up to the trapper, Morse said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services will carry out destroying the beaver.
And beavers need to be made into coats...or hats...or rugs....whatever...
Screw with the beautiful people's bike path and you are dead meat. I'll bet the bikers are card carrying members of the Sierra Club.
Bucky Beaver has a “KNAWTY” habit.
I think they were being a little rough on the Beaver...
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