WALKERTON – Bobbi Schmidt and her mother Brenda Sharpe were alarmed when they heard that kill traps had been set in River Bend Park on the long weekend to get rid of a beaver.
They weren’t the only ones upset by the traps.
Most people based their objections on the fact that the traps were in a location where pet dogs or even children could have a tragic encounter with them.
Mayor Chris Peabody said the traps were initially moved across the river to a location where there would be a smaller chance of something like this happening; the traps have since been removed completely.
What upset Schmidt and Sharpe was not just the potential for harming humans or pets, but the deliberate effort to harm the beaver.
The two set up an information table in front of the municipal office on June 1, to provide material about the traps – cruel and inhumane – and about beaver.
“They are a keystone species that are responsible for a balanced ecosystem and biodiversity, and the trail needs them,” wrote Sharpe in a statement.
“We do not want this beautiful creature killed… beavers need to be protected,” she said.
The two do not subscribe to what Schmidt termed “human supremacist” ideology, that animals are “objects or commodities that humans are entitled to own, use, subjugate, enslave or profit from.”
She went on to say that beavers are entitled to the same protection and rights that humans have.
“The speciesist solution is always to simply murder the irrelevant lives causing them inconvenience… as sentient animals, humans have a moral and ethical obligation to coexist with our fellow earthlings,” said Sharpe.
“When there is no possible way that we can accommodate our friends’ space and habitat, the next step is not to murder them. The next step (is) relocation of the beavers.”
The two noted that of the 50 or so trees destroyed along the river, only a few were due to beaver.
The creatures are vital in ensuring a healthy wetland ecosystem stays healthy, and they help soften the impacts of climate change. And they’re living creatures who deserve ethical and respectful treatment.
