Whistleblowers have just informed PETA that the village of Orland Park has set conibear and/or leg-hold (body-gripping) traps in several local ponds in order to drown families of beavers. The body-gripping traps used by trappers to capture and kill beavers cause immeasurable suffering. Death by drowning is also extremely cruel and is condemned by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) in its "2000 Report of the AVMA Panel on Euthanasia" (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 218 (5): 696). It can take up to 24 minutes for beavers to drown. Imagine beavers' terror as they struggle and fight against the body-gripping traps and suffer from lacerations and internal injuries. Such trapping is a cruel and ineffective way to resolve perceived problems with beavers.

PETA has contacted the village manager's office and asked that the village pull the traps and instead accept PETA's assistance in developing an effective, humane beaver-control program. The village manager's office claimed that no such traps were being set. According to PETA's records and despite the fact that Orland Park has killed beavers to resolve conflicts since 1996, beavers obviously continue to reoccupy these areas of concern. Our informants tell us that we were lied to and that these fatal traps are currently set in ponds and along creeks at the following intersections:

• Wolf Road and 175th on a small pond north of the railroad tracks

• 179th and Route 6 behind the Metro station

• 104th and 108th in a creek that runs north of 159th

Trapping, shooting, or otherwise removing beavers from the area of concern is only a short-term solution and will not adequately address the long-term problems associated with beaver activity in Orland Park. As long as areas remain attractive or accessible to beavers, more animals will simply move in from surrounding areas to fill the newly vacant niches, resulting in a vicious, perpetual trap-and-kill cycle.