The Whitehorse-area family, who had lived happily at Meadow Lakes for years thanks to the efforts of the golf club’s owner, had crossed a road to a nearby culvert. Citing concerns of flooding and infrastructure damage, the Yukon Department of Highways swiftly reacted: a trapper was brought in to kill the beavers.
Though APFA was able to reach out and offer assistance in the form of free flow devices – a story picked up by The Whitehorse Daily Star, CBC Yukon and CRKW – we were too late.
Journalist Rhiannon Russell of the Star informed us of their demise earlier today.
We can only hope now that these beavers are somehow living peacefully in a land full of soft trees and running streams.
Despite this disheartening setback, our offer to assist the Yukon government and landowners remains strong: we will fly into Whitehorse and provide exclusion fences to this area to protect the beavers who will eventually resettle this land, at no cost to taxpayers.
It can be hard to hold on to hope when we know lives have been lost. But hope is what we need today: hope that this government will hear the cries of its citizens, hope that this government will allow us to assist them, and, most importantly, hope that the beavers who will eventually reclaim this land will live long, peaceful lives.
Photo provided by Critter Care Wildlife Society
