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Local authorities prepare to hunt Swedish beavers

Published: 16 Aug 12 16:07 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42662/20120816/

Local authorities in Skaraborg, central Sweden, have been granted permission to shoot some of the beavers in the area, blamed for a flooding problem which has been plaguing the town.

“Imagine having these fine creatures so close to the town. The flooding isn’t their fault,” said disgruntled field biologist Manne Ryttman to local paper Skaraborgs Allehanda.

There are reportedly some ten Swedish beavers resident in the area, since the first arrived about ten years ago.

In their application to the county council, the municipality board asked for all the animals to be shot, but they were only granted permission to shoot one adult animal and any potential young beavers born last year.

The flooding has reportedly been a nuisance for residents in the Aspö area of Skaraborg, where some football fields have become waterlogged and walking paths flooded.

“It is our youngest members that are affected by this, our football school,” said Rune Espefät of the local Skövde AIK football club to TV 4 News.

“Of course the beavers also have a right to be somewhere but we would really like to have our playing fields to ourselves.”

It is a local stream which is flooding the grounds, a stream that the municipality has promised to clear and where the beavers live.

However, according to Ryttman, the flooding probably has more to do with recent heavy rains than problems caused by the local beaver population.

“It is completely wrong to shoot them, they are useful and an integral part of the Swedish fauna,” Ryttman told Skövde Nyheter.

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17:01 August 16, 2012 by Rishonim
In the Sweden people just like to shoot and kill things. How sick is that!
17:41 August 16, 2012 by johnjohn
Swedish beaver.
18:46 August 16, 2012 by Keith #5083
My wife and I have had a house here for almost 25 years. I have seldom come across an item of Swedish news that,well, reall disgusts me!

This is one of those rare occasions.

Is this the only reasonable solution Skaraborg can find? Are they actually Swedes in Skaraborg? This does not speak of the normal desire in Sweden to respect nature.

What a fantastic role model example for those 'younger people' whose football field gets flooded.

Hell, they'll be shooting raindrops next!!!!
19:02 August 16, 2012 by Abe L
Where can I volunteer? Significant experience hunting Swedish beavers.
20:56 August 16, 2012 by Eric1
These animals are destructive to the natural environment. Their dams destroy thousands of trees and habitat for small ground animals/plants by building ponds that sometimes cover several hectares.
21:52 August 16, 2012 by wxman
Attention all amateurs! Swedish beaver has been a recognized delicacy worldwide for many decades. Leave the hunting to the experienced, like me!
22:55 August 16, 2012 by jostein
Those that prepare finish last. Gogetters simply go and get.
23:57 August 16, 2012 by Svensksmith
A beaver is a terrible thing to waste.
00:48 August 17, 2012 by Keith #5083
#5

Of course, their ponds are of absolutely no use to any other life forms - birds that are attracted, fish that spawn, frogs that breed, insect life that is rejuvenated in the pond area.

Vegetation increases around the pond area and the diversity of life in that area is increased.

Respectfully, Eric 1, nature has it's own ways of balancing the equations. You are only expressing one aspect of the equation.

Football players, on the other hand, enrich everything.huh?
01:47 August 17, 2012 by Frobobbles
There's room for everyone in Sweden, out there in the great wide open beaver land.
02:23 August 17, 2012 by philster61
I wouldn't dare hunt any Swedish beaver. In case I ended up like Julian Assange.
07:10 August 17, 2012 by skogsbo
Keith, when you say you have a house here, do you live here, or come and go as a rose tinted glasses wearing holidaying tourist? Beavers are fairly famous for their damage and Sweden has more than enough lake and ponds to keep the frogs happy! If my land was being wrecked by them, I'd shoot them. Ponds and flooded marsh land is not very productive for the owner.
11:31 August 17, 2012 by Lemon1987
Kill those beavers with bad taste in music
08:08 August 18, 2012 by Unconditional1
Perhaps those sweet Swedish "beavers" need a good paddling, er...licking,er...!!
10:18 August 20, 2012 by muugii
Send them to Mongolia, as I remember this summer Mongolia imported some beavers from Germany and Russia to increase its water level. Mongolian weather could possibly be harsh to the beavers but it is still better than shooting them, i guess.
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