Girl Scouts trap beaver, anger activists

[Blitz]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Let other Girl Scouts make bird feeders out of Clorox bottles and glue together little birch-bark canoes -- Troop 34 in Alaska is learning to trap and skin beavers.

In a practice that has angered animal rights activists, the girls are killing the beavers as part of a state flood-management program. "We think it sends a very, very bad message that when animals cause a problem you kill them," said Stephanie Boyles of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She said the Girl Scouts should want girls to become "stewards of wildlife, not abusers."

Last spring, about 10 members of the Fairbanks troop and their families helped catch two beavers using snare and lethal traps. The girls were taught how to find the animals' dens and how to lay the traps. Working under close supervision, the girls used knives to skin the beavers. The troop had the pelts tanned and plans to make hats and mittens once a dozen hides are collected. The girls also want to cook beaver meat.

(SNIP)

The state-run Take a Kid Trapping program is aimed at controlling flooding and other damage caused by an increasing number of beavers along the lower Chena River in Fairbanks. It is open to kids as young as 7.

more:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/11/12/girl.scouts.trapping.ap/index.html

[Spentastic]

1. Great headline

Horrible story.

[Blitz]

47. What's horrible about the story?

eom.

[Don_G]

2. PETA Knows Nothing

The program is designed to teach kids responsible game management and a few outdoor skills in Alaska. Left uncontrolled, animals can damage an ecosystem almost beyond repair as I've seen before.

If PETA wants to bitch, them let them trap the beaver and use them as pets or pay for the damages incurred by uncontrolled flooding.

[BiggJawn]

4. And let PETA take some of our Deer while they're at it...

Read last week that the Deer population in the Wabash watershed is approaching levels equal to when Tecumseh and The Prophet ran things up here...

Oh, you think that's GOOD? Well, don't forget, there are no longer ANY "natural predators" for Deer in this area. just the "Nuge-Types" hunters and morning commuters who get injured and destroy their cars hitting htem.

[Don_G]

12. Exactly

There is a privately run forest near Louisville. The managers do not allow hunting and as a result, the deer population exploded to the point they were stripping the bark off the trees just to trick their stomachs into thinking food was there.

Other parts of the state and Interstates were plagued with deer. Several people died in the collisions and one was found wandering the Interstate in Downtown Louisville.

Game management is necessary anymore given the lack of natural predators.

[Rainbowreflect]

5. Sounds like what humans do.

"Left uncontrolled, animals can damage an ecosystem almost beyond repair."
Nature could take care take care of herself until humans screwed it all up.

[demdave]

7. Pandors's box has been open for quite some time.

Si deal with it, as a human, we aren't leaving. Now it is our responsibility to manage the wildlife and environment. Nature can no longer take care of itself, and to bury your head in the sand and say "it used to" is irresponsible.

Animal populations have to be managed. PETA would rather go about chasing their agenda and turn a blind eye to the damage it would do.

[slackmaster]

8. Absolutely right

Now that humans have irreversibly changed the ecosystem it's incumbent on us to manage it responsibly. Getting completely out of it is no longer an option for us.

[forgethell]

11. Sure it did.

And it did it by ruthlessley pruning (Killing to you) the excess animal populations. Mankind is here to stay. Modern man does a much better job than the "noble" savages did. the Native American tribes, for instance, were very bad. for instance, they would stampede whole herds of bison over cliffs. The reason was not moral, but technological. They wanted to eat, and did. Nothing wrong with that. But they did not have the knowledge to manage the land, or the animal resources. funny how the North American mega-fauna went extinct just about thesame time the Native Americans first showed up. Check out the ecological catastrophes in Central America that occurred in the first millenium CE.

Animals are part of the world, and so are we.

[sybylla]

18. You forget, humans are part of nature

not outside of it looking in. Yes, we have done things to screw up ecosystems. Now we have a responsibility to maintain balance as best we can. Learning outdoor skills and responsible habitat management is important. Nature isn't about all or nothing, but about balance. Killing nothing is no more a solution than killing everything.

[Lorien]

32. Wasting your time, Rainbowreflect

Liberalism and compassion towards nature and animals seems nearly dead these days, especially on DU.Right wing attitudes prevail throughout America on these issues-this is one area they've definately won. This is why I don't have children-I could never bear the thought of bringing them into such an arrogent, selfish and dying society. We have become complete reactionaries-the first and only answer is to kill and destroy. Any other suggestion is seen as "naive" and a "bleeding heart" viewpoint unworthy of consideration.Look away from the natural world, see it only as a resource to control and profit from. We'll drive ourselves mad by caring.

[sybylla]

37. You're wasting our time

thinking there is no middle road, darlin'. If life in the real world were only so black and white, things would be so much easier to deal with, decisions would be so much easier to make. Unfortunately, there is a lot of gray out there - bleak, dull gray - that has to be dealt with and extremism won't cut it.

You can stay in your ivory tower if you wish and let the rest of us deal with the real world while you call us names. Or you can come down here with us lowlifes, look at what is happening in local environments, cough up some real answers and roll up your sleeves because the real world isn't all pretty and nice.

[forgethell]

44. What makes you think

that people who have a more realistic view of naure don't care as much as you do? Are we wrong to care more about our fellow man than about other species? How many human infants would it be worth so that cougars can roam free in downtown LA? do animals plan for the furture and a better society, or are they just interested in themselves and their own offspring?

I love animals as much as you do. And evidently people more. IMHO

[Bandit]

6. Teaching young girls to kill is responsible????

I agree there is a beaver problem but teaching young girls to kill animals is not the answer IMHO. That is why we have a Dept of Fish and Game. I guess next we should have the girls shoot wolves from airplanes. Great Sport.

[slackmaster]

9. Is your objection based on their age or their gender?

Would you feel better about having boys do the work?

How about adult women?

[Bandit]

24. None of the above

How about our highly paid wildlife managers to do their jobs? I do find it revolting that a society would want young people (especially girls) to kill small animals. Yes I guess the sex factor is there. I am an old fashioned fellow and I don't feel it is something to teach young girls.

[Blitz]

28. Yes, by all means, let's keep the girls in their place

This is the girl scouts, not public school. The girls are there because they and their parents want them to be there. As for "highly paid wildlife managers" (LOL), where do you think they come from? Do you suppose they spring up, fully grown and trained out of thin air? Or do you think that, just maybe, some of these girls will grow up to be modestly paid wildlife managers in a few years (or do you think that "wildlife manager" should be a male-only position?).

These girls are learning to do something that is healthy for the environment and healthy for the community, not to mention learning a skill that has been integral to the local culture for centuries.

Here's another quote from the article:

"Shore noted that Troop 34, made up of 13 girls ages 10 to 12, participated after an invitation from the state Department of Fish and Game.

'It is understandable why the troop responded positively when approached by a state authority to conduct an activity that is commonplace in that area of the country,' Shore wrote.

(snip)

Alaska scout leaders said the program is a "non-issue" in Fairbanks, where trapping has a long history."

Just out of curiosity, besides trapping and hunting, what other activities do you feel that girls and women should be barred from participating in?

[Bandit]

36. Barred from participating in.

I never said women should be barred from anything. I said it was revolting to me to teach youg girls to kill small animals. It is amazing how people like to twist one's words here. Not a very honest feature if you ask me. And by the way how many people do you know that have eaten beaver meat? The only thing trappers use is the fur. The meat is not usable and in this 21st century why do we need to wear fur? It is barbaric. IMHO and wildlife management is not the jurisdiction of the girl scouts. And in Alaska the Managers are highly paid in fact some managers actually make more than the governor.

[Blitz]

39. OK, you can have your words as they are

Here are a few of mine:

I find the idea that what an individual should and should not be taught should be predicated upon their gender rather than their desires or abilities to be revolting.

I guess everybody has their own concept of what is revolting.

[NickB79]

64. Beaver tastes pretty good when cooked right

A little gamey if you don't trim off all the fat, but still good as long as it's not from an ancient, tough one. Hell, even woodchuck is tasty if you clean and cook it properly. Many of the animals trapped for their furs ARE eaten as well as skinned. It is mainly the coyote and fox that are not eaten (yuck).

As to fur, I would rather wear real fur than faux fur, since the real stuff is not made from non-renewable petroleum products but rather from a local, renewable resource. That's besides the point though since I don't wear fur. The problem is that, like it or not, eventually these animals WILL have to be killed to control the population. Beavers do not have many natural predators to begin with, and even fewer with man around. They can and do dam streams to the point of causing widespread flooding of surrounding land. So, you can either trap a few of them and use the fur (and hopefully the meat too) like these girls are doing, or you can shoot them and leave them to rot. There is no other option: eventually some will have to be killed.

Again, you don't answer the question posed before: where do these highly trained wildlife managers come from, and where did they learn their skills? Most of them started out EXACTLY like this, following adults out hunting and trapping as children. You want the wildlife managers to do all this work, when this is a prime means of teaching the next generation of wildlife managers how to do the job in the future?

[DoNotRefill]

71. So...the animals were killed because they were causing....

flooding problems. You seem to think that NO use should be made of their carcasses, since "eating beaver" is passe, and wearing fur is cruelty. (heh...I said "eating beaver")

To the dead beaver, how the corpse is used matters because....??? Either way, it's still dead.

These girls weren't going out to kill beavers to make mittens. They were going out to stop the damage caused by flooding. Not using the carcasses would be wasteful.

[demdave]

10. Teaching girls about a career in wildlife management is the answer.

This program does just that. It doesn't sugar coat the job. It lets them participate in the everday activity and get real results. What better way to show a girl that she can be anything she wants when she grows up.

Would you rather keep her building popsicle stick dollhouses?

[Bozola]

13. Well said!

"Left uncontrolled, animals can damage an ecosystem almost beyond repair"

Abso-farking-lutely. Goddamned monkeys are everywhere blasting everything in sight with their guns, overfishing the oceans, crapping up all the rivers, and logging everything down to stubble.

This goddamn monkey species is damaging every ecosystem there is!

Since they won't control their own population, they must be managed.

Here's what we do: We get some girl scouts to place some big farking leg traps and bait them with six-pack of cheap-ass beer, cigarettes, or porno mags. We them place them all over Alaska; in Safeways, convenience stores, Walmarts, truck dealerships, etc...




The girl scouts will be doing a great service to the ecology, learning some important outdoors skills, and making a little money by selling homemade leather goods.

[SOS]

22. Your modest proposal

is on the money.
Non-Indian population in US in 1770: 2 million
in 2003: 280 million

Bison population in US, 1770: 50-100 million
In 2003: zero

Global population 1850: 1 billion
2003: 6.5 billion
2050 estimate: 10-12 billion

First the wolves and bison had to go, now it's deer and beavers.
Meanwhile humans replicate like a virus.
The earth is already at 120% of capacity. Meaning that the earth can organically sustain a population of 5 billion. If not for nitrogen fertilizers and other modern "farming" techniques, 1 billion would already be dead of starvation. By 2050 humans will double again to 12 billion. This number is not sustainable.
Killing every animal to make room for subdivisions and Wal-Marts is not wildlife management, but rather the last suicidal gasps of a rapacious, doomed species.
Humans are destroying the earth, not beavers. By 2050, when the oceans are empty, the sky is brown, the rivers are yellow,
the oil has run out and billions are dead of starvation, even a girl scout will understand that the beavers didn't do it.

[slaveplanet]

45. Your theory is interesting,what's your proposal?

Bushco and many other world leaders have a contingency plan, ya see, that # will never reach anywhere near 12 billion. Once power is consolidated, that 6.5B is going to reverse bigtime. And for the survivors, well they'll envy the dead, as full slavery will be all thats left for those without power. Believe me, they have no scruples about pulling the trigger on this. They've been planning for years, why do you think they made the move to control the oil reserves now. They plan on laughing all the way to the bank whilst they hide in their bunkers. Be careful what you wish for...ww3 is a reality,it's already started,it's not going to be only 5 years duration ,and you ain't seen nothing yet.

[kwolf68]

51. LMAO...

Good ass post.

[juancarlos]

34. PETA is made up of

well-meaning but misinformed fools.

[forgethell]

46. I associated with some PETA people

I do not think they are all well-meaning, at all.

[Kolesar]

49. PETA has accomplished a lot, so don't call them fools

Without them, McDonalds would never have adopted "more humane" standards for hamburger cattle.

I am on the fence about the GS and beavers. Some how I cannot get too excited either way.

[kwolf68]

50. This is the dumbest post ever written

Animals can "damage an ecosystem almost beyond repair as I've seen before."

If the animal is natural to the ecosystem then its presence is paramount to the survival of the ecosystem?

To suggest that the ecosystem can not "function" without the guiding hand of man in the form of hunting, trapping, etc. is foolish beyond reason and isn't grounded in anything scientific.

If we are talking feral animals, yes...they are a menance, but natural animals hell no...if a natural animal could "damage an ecosystem almost beyond repair as I've seen before"...then it would be creating its own demise; sorta like we humans are doing.

The real reason to have 7 year olds hunting, trapping and killing is to de-sensitize them to the practice.

[Kolesar]

52. Maybe trapping is appropriate to their culture

Maybe they are more like indigenous bush people than they are like pasty white immigrants to Alaska. I admit that 7 seems a bit young for such activity (like handling sharp knives!). My mother ate more than a few rabbits that my grandma shot because they needed dinner--that was their Appalachian heritage.

[DoNotRefill]

72. Would you care to explain the difference between "feral" and "natural"...

animals?

I always thought ferals were domesticated species that reverted to their natural, undomesticated state. As such, what's the difference between "feral" and "natural"? And what's an "unnatural" animal? A Jackalope? ;-)

I suppose you've never seen a whitetail deer population that's bred out of control. I have. It's not a pretty thing. Nature's response is positively Keynsian. Now THAT is cruelty.

[Don_G]

75. You Must Live In A City

And a well-meaning educated individual who gets most of their ideals and experience from books and IMAX.

Get out, camp and open your eyes.

[The Stranger]

62. Right. Of course. What was I thinking?

Where would the DU be without the PETA bashers?

[madrchsod]

3. sounds reasonable

to me,to bad peta knows nothing about animal management.

[TexasMexican]

14. so sad

Those poor kids just wanted some beaver pelts so they could have something to barter with when they visted Canada. :p

[truthspeaker]

15. I'm glad more girls are learning to hunt, fish, and trap

nt

[radwriter0555]

17. Why? We have grocery stores now. Killing for sport is insane..

n/t

[Blitz]

19. Did you read the article?

They aren't killing for sport. Trapping (and hunting) is part of necessary conservation in Alaska (and elsewhere).

[truthspeaker]

20. so killing for sport is insane

But paying low-wage workers to do the killing for you in a slaughterhouse assembly line is not. Gotcha.

[radwriter0555]

29. That's right. The low wage workers are working for a living, and providing

food and clothing to others through their labor.

There is simply no need to teach kids how kill wild animals. This is the year 2003, and we are in fact a modern society that is dependent on production and industry for our survival, not killing wild animals.

Killing wild animals for sport is insane. There is no need or justification for it, in this modern day and age.

[truthspeaker]

30. then there's no need to teach kids gardening

They can buy vegetables, fruit, and flowers at the supermarket.

No need to teach basic carpentry skills. There are professionals for that.

No need to teach sewing. There are professionals for that.

No need to teach cooking. Just buy premade or eat at restaurants.

[BiggJawn]

42. Don't teach our kids ANYTHING...

...Except how to be consumers. Uncle Sam wants YOU.....To hustle down to K-Mart and buy Martha's made-in-sweatshops sheeta and towels....

Haven't you heard the news? We live in a "Consumer Economy" now. If WalMart fails, so fails Murka....

[bicentennial_baby]

43. Wow

You obviously are quite uninformed as to the working conditions of a slaughterhouse, and the incredible rate of debilitating, lifelong injuries associated with that occupation. Not to mention that slaughterhouses have the highest rate of turnover of any profession in the U.S.

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

67. Then I must be insane

I've been hunting deer since I was five years old. My father taught me, and I intend to teach my children, be they sons or daughters, if they wish.

I killed my first deer when I was eight years old. Tore me up pretty bad, looking into the eyes of a deer that I had killed. I gained respect for wildlife because of that.

Hunters don't just go into the woods shooting up everything they see. I've passed on quite a few deer because of size, age, gender, possibility of a wounding shot. Bet you didn't think hunters would pass up a shot did you?

Nevermind the fact that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department took in $24.6 million from hunting and fishing licenses in 1984, prices are way up since then. I don't know how much was taken in last year, but I would expect it to be quite a bit higher. http://www.window.state.tx.us/tpr/btm/btmnr/nr11.html

Did any other group give almost $25 million to Texas Parks and Wildlife in 1984?

But there in no need for hunters in this day and age.

[DoNotRefill]

73. Rad...

where did the "sport" part come into this article?

How is wildlife management practice considered "sport"?

[Man_in_the_Moon]

21. Slaughterhouses good? Hunting bad?

nt

[NickB79]

66. You can have your supermarket meat

It takes like crap, it has less nutritional value then wild meat, it has all those hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals in it, and it was taken from animals that were most likely raised in inhumane factory farms all their lives. Hunting for your own meat is probably one of the most responsible things you could do. If the meat happens to come from a 10-point buck, so be it :-) But I much prefer doe meat.

[LARED]

16. Why not teach them these skills?

The troop had the pelts tanned and plans to make hats and mittens once a dozen hides are collected. The girls also want to cook beaver meat.

Sounds fine to me. They are using what was taken in a constructive way. It is Alaska afterall, not Manhattan.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Picture this

One day your 9-year old comes home crying and says they made her kill and skin a furry animal.

Do you believe all those children had no problem doing this?

[truthspeaker]

25. I assume the parents approved ahead of time

Girl Scout troops are led by parent volunteers. I doubt they "made" any girl do it who didn't want to.

[sybylla]

26. Been there, done that

in a manner of speaking. Yes, I believe that only those who wanted to participate did. You city people should get out more.

[truthspeaker]

27. if I ever have kids

I anticipate teaching them how to kill a fish, cut filets, and dispose of the remains by the time they are 12 or so, whether they (the kids) are male or female.

Got a problem with that? Then raise your own kids.

[sybylla]

31. I assume you're replying to JCCyC

Cuz I don't have any problem with it. Been fishing since I was a baby, been hunting since I was old enough to keep up with my parents and grandfather walking through the woods.

I'm with you, truthspeaker.

[truthspeaker]

33. just replying in general

I'm still learning the posting format here.

[sybylla]

35. No problem

Even veteran DUers click in the wrong place on occasion. Just thought I'd check it out. Thought maybe I wasn't being clear enough.

:hi:

[Bandit]

60. Nothing wrong with that

I have hunted and fished all my life. I brought my children up to do the same. I do not trap. There is a huge difference in my opinion. Small animals like mink and martin and beaver are not eaten. They are killed solely for their fur. In this day and age fur is a luxury and not a necessity. We don't need to wear fur any longer. I think there is a huge difference in killing small furry animals just for a luxury. Fish and game is another matter. We eat venison and fish all the time. It serves a good purpose and is a healthy use of natural resource.

[kwolf68]

53. BS

7, 8 and 9 year old kids dont have a freaking clue what they really want.

However, pressed on and pushed on by a group of adults kids 8 years old would brutally torture a puppy dog if that is what you taught them.

Aniaml exploitation "sports/events" fostered onto children at an early age desensitizes them. It is pretty much a fact that most people who hunt or trap started at an early age.

Very few people 30 years old decide one day to pick up hunting as a recreation after never have done it.

Eddie Eagle has done for guns and hunting the same thing that Joe Camel did for cigerretes.

To suggest an 8 year old girl wanted to go kill animals is absurd and defies logic.

[DoNotRefill]

76. Correct me if I'm wrong here....

but Eddie Eagle does NOT address hunting in ANY way. It's also NOT a firearms training course, it teaches kids not to fuck around with guns.

Hunting doesn't make much sense if you live in the inner city on the east coast. These kids live out in freaking ALASKA. Hunting and animal husbandry makes sense out there.

[radwriter0555]

69. I fish, I used to run a trap line. I'm an accomplished woods-person in

fact, and considered a naturalist known for camping, hiking, climbing and survivalist skills.

I grew up in the woods and on the farm. I grew up with deer hanging and bleeding off in the garage, and then being sent out for butchering and taxidermy. I grew up tapping maple trees to make syrup. I was the first person to spot a Scarlet tanager in Baltimore Woods in more than 20 years, after the woods had been reclaimed by environmentalists and saved from developers.

I ran trap lines as a kid, growing up in rural upstate New York, until I was 16. Then I got a conscience, and stopped. I had no REASON to trap rabbits and foxes. I didn't accomplish anything by it, I learned nothing from it and I gained nothing from it. I did it because my family did it, and it was something to do after school and on weekends. The only lessons I learned was that I had caused an innocent, productive warm, living creature harm, hurt, torture, agony and pain.

Those girl scouts don't need mittens and gloves. They don't need to kill beavers. Beavers were in that habitat long before man was, and if their dam building interferes with man's objectives, then man is the one upsetting the balance.

Take what you need, and leave the rest. That's all I know.

[DoNotRefill]

74. JCC...

this is a VOLUNTARY organization. These kids aren't conscripts. Decades ago when I was in the Boy Scouts, we had all kinds of troop activities on the weekends. People knew what they entailed, and could choose to participate or not depending on if they were interested. NOBODY forced these kids to do ANYTHING.

[curse10]

38. Only 1 post before the PETA bashing began!

I think that's a world record.

~proud supporter and donator of funds to PETA! Nyah!

[truthspeaker]

40. IMHO they deserve to be bashed

because of situations just like this.

* enjoys fried chicken sandwich *

But, I'm glad you and I are both welcome under the Democrat big tent.

[nn2004]

41. Well peta bashed the Girl Scouts first

Maybe peta should learn to respect the choices of others before they start foaming at the mouth.

[kwolf68]

54. Well a little thing called free speech

PETA can say anything they damn well please. Whether they are doing something completely inane like renting billboard space to suggest shark attacks are "natures revenge" or they are actually doing something credible they have a place and a right to say anything they want.

Just as pro-hunting zealots have a right to spew out all their non-sense, no matter how devoid of ecoloigcal fact it is.

[Blitz]

57. Nobody said that they couldn't say what they want

The poster was just pointing out that they and heir supporters don't have a lot of room for whining about being "bashed" after they started the whole thing by calling a bunch of girl scouts "abusers."

Girl Scouts are abusers.

PETA is a bunch of self-defeating idiots.

See? Free speech for everybody.

[Don_G]

78. Free Speech

PETA is a bunch of RABID self-defeating idiots who have absolutely no idea of nature beyond what they see in National Geographic and IMAX.

[DoNotRefill]

77. Peta give true environmentalists a bad name.

they're a DISGRACE.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

48. I want to see headline: "BEAVERS TRAP ACTIVISTS, ANGER GIRL SCOUTS"

:evilgrin:

I don't think that an Alaskan Girl Scout troop is going to have a very large ecological impact unless they all go native and turn into Grizzly Adams clones.

[leanings]

55. Amazing

how far away from the land people have gotten.

[corarose]

56. I am an Animal Rights Activists

If I had a kid and someone wanted me to let her trap and kill an animal I wouldn't let her do it.

What's next are these little killers going to kill the family cat or dog and skin it?

[sybylla]

59. Wow, I bet you're a psychology major.

Been killing animals with a gun for 27 years. Been hunting alot longer, since I was old enough to keep up with the adults. Never killed for the sake of killing. With the exception of skunks and opossum, I eat everything I kill.

I must therefore be a sick human being because obviously I couldn't have learned how to kill an animal and still have respect for animals and nature.

You certainly have the right to decide what your children learn and don't learn. But I am mightily offended by your prejudice.

[TEXASYANKEE]

65. Just curious ...

"Never killed for the sake of killing. With the exception of skunks and opossum, I eat everything I kill."

Why do you kill skunks and possums?

[sybylla]

68. I bet you don't live in the country, do you?

Pet and property defense. Both can carry rabies. Both can harm pets and damage property. As long as they don't decide to regularly visit my 4 little acres and as long as they exhibit normal behavior, we get along just fine. Happens very rarely that they get attached to me because I take care not to have attractants on my property where they can get at it. Did have to put down a skunk once who was not exhibiting normal behavior as we suspected it was in the later stages of rabies.

[corarose]

82. It was a hypothetical because I don't have any kids

:kick:

[MrPrax]

58. That's Canada's mascot!!!

They'll be sweeping over the border with hockey sticks and tocques any minute now...

The living will envy the dead...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

61. What? The Girl Scout?

[SidDithers]

80. Yup, we'll have to start killing Bald Eagles now.... nt.

Sid

[peterh]

63. After the outdoor trapping lesson….

Next on the syllabus is an indoor course on the methodologies used by boys to trap and snare two-legged beaver…

Don’t mine me…just being silly on an otherwise weird day…

[ozone_man]

70. A non-issue.

Although I'm not fond of the Boy or Girl Scouts. Kind of a paramilitary organization, wouldn't you say? Other options are not always available for kids, especially Alaska. The Chena River has a huge flood control program, so I understand why beavers could aggrevate the flooding problem. I would prefer a catch and release effort, but Beavers are not endangered anymore like they were during the fur trade era. Besides, where they get released may be fully populated as well. As long as the scouts are taught respect for the animals, and appears that they are, it's fine.

[EV1Ltimm]

79. beavers must be stopped at all costs!

First alaska, then the world!

[henslee]

81. Just me or is the word Girlscout and Beaver in the same sentence funny.