CFN – Rebecca Sorrell walked in Guindon Park with me and talked about the City of Cornwall’s odd response to a request to a 90 Day Moratorium to Beaver trapping in the City Controlled Nature trail.
Beaver Lodge in Guindon Park
With 500 acres it seemed preposterous to cull a family of 5 beavers that were living in the lodge, but after our request and story, the traps were moved to the mouth of the lodge wiping out the remaining beavers. As of last week there were two noticed, but it’s been over a week since any activity has been seen.
Young Snapping Turtles Frolic in Beaver Pond in Guindon Park
Council has sat silently by allowing this beaver family to be wiped out.
Only one councilor was willing to try and help, but he was soon overwhelmed by the rest of council and city management who seemed determined to wipe out the beavers to “assist” OPG with 
their request for Beaver Control as it’s close to, oddly enough, one of the largest man made dams in the world!
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The good news, hopefully for the future, is that Lesley Fox, the Executive Director of Furbearerdefenders.com read our story on CFN and has sent an open letter to City Council here in Cornwall.
OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF CORNWALL RE: BEAVER TRAPPING IN GUINDON PARKDear Mayor Kilger and Council,We have recently learned the City of Cornwall is using traps to kill wildlife, namely beavers in Guindon Park.Not only are leg-hold, Conibear and snare traps cruel, they pose an immediate danger to non-target wildlife, pets and even children. Furthermore, trapping does nothing to solve your problem. Quite simply, you can kill as many beavers as you want, but in a short time, more animals will return to fill the open niche. Unless you secure the habitat/food source, you will always have a beaver problem..At the request of our members living in Cornwall, we would like to help you adopt a non-lethal approach to managing wildlife. We have experience installing alternatives such as the Beaver Deceiver, pond levellers and Beaver Bafflers. We would be more than happy to meet with your staff to evaluate sites where you are having a problem with beaver activity. We could also install these devices at NO COST to you..In addition to providing you with FREE solutions to manage your ‘nuisance’ wildlife, we would also like to encourage the City of Cornwall to adopt a bylaw to prohibit the use of the leg-hold, Conibear and snare trap (all body-gripping traps)..For your review, I have attached 3 documents:
- Working With Beavers – how to build non-lethal alternatives
- An example of a municipal trapping bylaw (Guelph, ON)
- Examples of non-target animals/children that have been killed or injured by traps
In addition to these documents, I am more than happy to discuss with you at length the available non-lethal alternatives to trapping, and the cost saving benefits from these devices..In summary, our objective is to:1) Assist Cornwall in implementing non-lethal options for wildlife control2) Encourage Cornwall to prohibit the use of bodygripping traps (specifically leghold, Conibear and snare traps)If you are curious to see how leghold, Conibear and snare traps work, we encourage you to view our video “Crying Shame”. The video footage was given to us by a licensed trapper and was taken during trapping season. (Contains graphic footage). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIVmVMraR3I.Will the City of Cornwall take us up on our offer to help install alternatives to lethal trapping? Also, in the interest of public safety, will the city of Cornwall ban the use of body-gripping traps?.I am more than happy to answer and questions you may have about this issue, you can reach me directly at: 604-435-1850. I will be following up with each of you regarding this issue in the coming weeks..Thank you for your consideration .Lesley FoxExecutive DirectorThe Association for the Protection of Fur-Bearing Animals
215-3989 Henning Dr.Burnaby, BC V5C 6P8Tel: 604-435-1850Cell: 778-892-5369You can also follow us at:
In the meanwhile Rebecca Sorrell will continue to don her Rubber boots and keep bring her daughter to Guindon park to learn some of the mysteries of nature. She’s now taken her online petition to print with many local stores jumping on board, and is hoping to galvanize support at Monday night’s Council meeting. She’s encouraging anyone that cares about this subject to attend. She’s also applied to present to council, but there was no reply as of this print date.
The question I asked Rebecca and am hearing from more people is whether someone should be held accountable at City Hall for this travesty against nature? The loud answers for the most part are yes.
It’s also extremely embarrassing to have Councilor Bernadette Clement sit in silence on this issue while being on the board of the St. Lawrence River Institute of Environmental Science. While the councilor may apparently not know better, the trained scientists that she has access to probably do. I would hope that they have the courage to ask her to step down immediately if does not have the sense to do so on her own.
You can post your comment below and to sign Rebecca’s petition online CLICK HERE.
Maybe we should hire the Quinn guy to trap council? Send money to Admin.
Let’s pray the letter and invitation from Ms. Lesley Fox will be paid attention to. Good job!
I agree with the lady in the video. We always loved to go to Guindon Park and we go there when we are in Cornwall. After seeing what is going on I am sickened over all of this. I would like to ensnare Kilger and his council in these traps and just maybe we can come up with something better than the “good ole boyz and old hags club” and have people who appreciate nature and the good things in life. What is good about Cornwall are the parks and if you keep on harming nature people will not step foot there because that is the real attraction. The bees are almost extinct because of what man is doing with chemicals and GMO foods that kill them off. When animals die so do we humans and don’t think that the global elite are not already doing things to us as we speak. These global elite do not eat the same food as what we are eating – we are eating poisons. Many countries will not even touch the garbage that we sell in our stores. People better wake up because things are a great deal worse in our country and our world than what people are aware of and the government is a tyrany and people don’t know about that. When people are not educated and not well read then they don’t know what is going on around them until it is too late. Keep watching your hockey games folks, and your dancing with the stars, etc. and all that garbage on TV that the word programming isn’t for nothing but it is to set your mind into a deep relaxation and entertain you with all the garbage so as you won’t know how much you are being screwed. Keep being blinded and ignorant. One day you will see humans being exterminated and it is already in the plans. Hitler did it to the Jews, Gypsies and anybody who protested and believe me it is already happening in the US – yes our neighbor to the south. You have no idea what is coming and you all better awaken.
From “population control to mass genocide”. Sounds like we have a holocaust on our hands. Or do we ? Data collected by Statistics Canada report that there are consistently over 100 000 induced abortion occurring annually in Canada alone.
I want the happy juice Jules is drinking so I can understand the short progression of Jules argument from beavers to Hitler. If anyone would like to send money to “Reason For Jules” please forward to Admin.
Perhaps if you can understand that when things like this become “acceptable” then you might understand the Hitler statement. I typically ignore Hitler references as I find them a little extreme and usually do little to prove a point. But think about what constitutes acceptable behavior.
One example might be the huge campaign to stop bullying. You can read about it in the papers all the time. In the exact same paper you will find no limit to the stories about police brutality. On one hand the police are heroes, on the other hand they are literally bullying people with brute force and are for the most part, unaccountable.
If you have trouble making this simple connection then you really don’t have much insight or any substantial arguments to put forth.
Haha, good one Pastor Tom. How many women live in Canada whose rights you want to abolish? Do you have that figure handy? Do you even know any women? You lost buddy. Like it or not, the women we love have rights and choices. Nobody’s a fan of abortion. When you talk that kinda trash, you’re literally talking about our mothers. Did the bible have anything to say about how we should treat our parents?
For the sake of the children, please don’t troll new sites Pastor Tom. You can actually volunteer to help children in need and even visit sick kids in hospitals… unless you’re on the sex offender registry. Yeah, I said it.
Jules… you might actually be insane. I read 3/4 of what you wrote and feel as though you are missing the point of this story. This has nothing to do with freemasons and the illuminati. In fact if you examine society ever so slightly you’ll see that the choices we make with our money dictate what the “elite” will sell to us. The only reason big companies pay for advertising on shows like Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck is because that’s what people like to watch so the advertising money is well spent.
Why would there have to be an evil elite? You think people will buy something healthy instead of a bag of chips because they’re brainwashed or something? I ate a small bag of chips yesterday because evolution has made me crave things that were scarce, like salt. Now it’s not so scarce, but I still crave it!
Education is subjective, and being well-read (as you put it) is entirely dependent upon what is being read. However, being discerning is something quite different. I am discerning because I can follow all your claims to their logical conclusions which are void of any real substance. You are espousing paranoia as if it were a virtue.
Pastor Tom, is paranoia a virtue?
I can’t edit these but I just read what I wrote the first time and I have to apologize…
Hey “Wow!”, I didn’t mean to sound so harsh towards you at all… I think I sent my frustration your way by mistake. I actually like what you said so I don’t know how I screwed that up. lordamercy.
(Jules) I personally find it very offensive – no matter how disgusting the senseless trapping of animals is – to suggest that council members should be ensnared in a trap.
Just looked at a model of a city close by to us that has eradicated the use of body holding traps, Guelph is that City. They passed a by-law in January of 2009 after a dog named Harper was caught in a trap. I could not find the exact story of what happened to the dog but nevertheless it was such a bad experience that the city actually did the work of listening to its citizens. You can find the by-law here:
http://guelph.ca/uploads/PDF/By-laws/cityofguelph-trapping-bylaw18709.pdf
I want to underline the point that it’s not a coincidence that recently Guelph has become known as a very good place to live because they focus on wellness and if you want to run as a health practice Guelph is the place to go. We might want to consider doing the same thing in Cornwall and visualize a safe, healthy place to live where animals, ecosystems and humans cohabit. I won’t be going to Guindon Parc because it sounds too dangerous in case one of my dogs got away from me.
This Mayor and Council is riding roughshod over all of us! They are not listening to the citizens of Cornwall. We’ll get rid of the shit next election.
I too walk my dog in this area and not sure if anyone has noticed the large earth dyke that extends a kilometre or so from the generating station along the shore of this park, which holds the river back and keeps Cornwall dry and above river level?
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I did a little research and the road that runs at the base of this earthen dyke (dam) through the back of the park is an access/ inspection road. Inspections would be hampered if this road was flooded and standing water created by a beaver dam will erode the bottom of this dyke and over time lead to dam failure. I am sure if you looked at an inundation map you will find very few areas in the city of Cornwall would be dry and survive.
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So go ahead and cry for the beaver……..one of the most destructive creatures in nature…..forget about the animal habitat and forest that is lost when beavers flood large areas or the erosion of the earthen dyke (dam) and vilify OPG and City of Cornwall for taking action to keep you all alive and dry.
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If you want to see the destructive power of a dam breach and just how fast it happens just search youtube there a few examples
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That’s good information to know bobgeneric. I think many on this issue want a bigger picture and to have input from biologists, engineers, conservationists or whomever it takes. So why do we CRY? It’s the sheer cruelty of the trapping method, council’s silence on the matter, and the real and present danger of pets or people also being harmed or killed.
bobgeneric all that was asked for was a 90 day moratorium of trapping to present to council. Is that unreasonable? Councils decision was to refuse to be presented to with evidence in spite of very strong public support; a free offer from an agency, and to top it all off, within moments of the CAO returning to office from leave, the moving of a trap to the lodge thus wiping out the family.
That’s a huge problem, and frankly; someone needs to held accountable for that.
the city councal did not or would not hear what we had to say because they have deaf ears so we should shout louder and bring more support in order that we are heard
he cries out why me as he is prodded and given jolts of electricity to keep him in line he spends his life all enclosed injectect with growth hormones taken from his mother at a very early age he is fed food that will make him fat and heavy and now the time is near he taken again to a building prodded and herded sold then put on a truck 43 below zero he will see hundreds of miles stuffed with many others his nostrils fighting for fresh air his body covered in excretement and at the end of the trail he lined up and he follows his friends as they are hit with a stun gun their throats cut he bleeds to death his fate is sealed he will wind up at the diner table or a quick stop after the council meeting burger and fries as steak hamburgers or pot roast as people discuss the fate of a rodent that has lived a very peaceful life until a very quick end to his life a rodent that wreaks damage to waterways, drainage ditches and trees that tree huggers so despreately tie themself to protest protection for.
A beaver is a rodent not seen for decades thanks to over trapping but now will little natural predators are harming the enviorment from farmers fields to large tracks of forest gone so when you protest the fast death of a beaver don’t forget to protest the meat counter and who in there right mind would let a small child play in a swamp out at the end of culvert unsupervised and pardon me is there not a leash law in place for that dog , so protest if you must but only if you are not a supporter of killing beef, chickens sheep and pigs who cry out why me as seen on the collar of a protester !
Reality check your repsonsible for more deaths of animals than the trapper trying to keep up with a rodent that live a very nice life compared to a food animal until the snap of a trap !
what happed to the snapping turtle you cant leave them there i no that they live there but i would like to see 1 but i cant cause i found one in my front yard then his head was big lol then he was nice i called him snapping girl turtle 🙁 i have had to let it go 😛
be safe snapping turtle i hope you be okay to stay in the cold lake i been to one it was really large i played with the sand in castle 🙂 i had so much fun!!! i wish i could see this every day but take care