Surrey signs altered to the 'beaver dies here'.
By Kevin Diakiw - Surrey North Delta Leader - June 16, 2008
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The Surrey United Naturists altered Surrey signs on Sunday to draw attention to the city's beaver kill program.
Don Pitcairn, Surrey United Naturists
Welcome to Surrey signs were altered Sunday stating "the beaver dies here."
Don Pitcairn, president of the Surrey United Naturists, told The Leader Monday he made the alterations Sunday night in reaction to stories that the city had killed 40 beavers last year.
"First of all, I just wanted to bring some public attention to the fact that there's been an ongoing program in Surrey for quite some time, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of controls over what they're doing," Pitcairn said. "How many this year, is it 50, 60? There seems to be no limit to what they're doing."
He said the beavers are creating important wetland habitat and should be left alone. He also believes there must be better methods of control outside killing them.
In fact, several other jurisdictions are having success with a "beaver deceiver" which fences the rodents away from drainage pipes.
As of Monday morning, Surrey staff began tearing down the red tape forming a cross over the beaver and removing "the beaver dies here" sign, which was affixed with staples.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has long opposed killing any animals in this city and even spearheaded a no-kill policy for the local SPCA.
She said defacing the city signs is no way to get that message out. But she agrees with the sentiment, and said she's upset about the use of a conibear trap, which breaks the animals' necks or backs.
"You know what, that's as inhumane as it can be," Watts said. "Whether you're drowning them, breaking their necks or breaking their backs, it's unacceptable. In this day in age, with the technology we have available to us, we should not be killing our wildlife."
The SPCA said it prefers live trapping and an injection of euthanol to the conibear trap.
Watts said she doesn't support the use of euthanol or any other method of euthanizing the beavers.
"I don't support killing any animal," Watts said. "I really don't, that's why way back when, we brought in spay and neuter legislation so we would have a no-kill policy (at the Surrey SPCA)."
She said she'll be meeting with the province in the coming weeks to discuss alternatives.
There were 3,878 beavers killed province-wide in 2005, which was the most recent year tracked by the ministry of environmemt.
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