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- <text id=92TT1895>
- <title>
- Aug. 24, 1992: Leave It to Beavers
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Aug. 24, 1992 George Bush: The Fight of His Life
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 17
- MISCELLANY
- Leave It to Beavers
- </hdr><body>
- <p> It's a jungle out there. Beavers, for so long considered one of
- the animal kingdom's hardest workers, are proliferating faster
- than they can paddle. According to a Colorado environmental
- group, Wildlife 2000, their numbers have swelled to more than 6
- million, maybe as many as 12 million. Animal-rights activists
- have crippled the fur trade, and killing helpless animals for
- sport is no longer fashionable. The result is that these
- mindlessly multiplying creatures are chewing up more trees than
- anyone can count. It is foolhardy to suggest that the
- anti-fur-coat folks should now retreat and give thousands of
- women--not to say the environment--a break. It is not crazy,
- however, to provide the beavers with contraceptives, so Wildlife
- 2000 has arranged to trap beavers, sort out the females and fit
- them with Norplant, the birth-control device. It might work,
- says Montana veterinarian Jay Kirkpatrick, who has used
- Norplant successfully on skunks. Inasmuch as beavers are such
- eager workers, it will be interesting to see if they suffer from
- angst as they try, try, try to have babies and fail, fail, fail.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
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