MN: Bill to legalize Eating Beaver

National Park Service image, public domain

According to the startribune.com, about five months ago, the Minnesota House-Senate conference committee inserted a ban on eating beaver into the 2024 omnibus environment and natural resources bill. The ban only applies to nuisance beavers which are taken because they are doing damage. Beaver which are taken as part of the normal trapping season may legally be consumed by humans.

Landowners who have beavers which are doing damage to their property do not need a permit to take beavers to stop the damage. From dnr.state.min.us:

You can take some animals which are normally protected by Minnesota Statute without a license or permit if they are doing damage. If you are the landowner, manager or occupant of the property where the animal is causing damage, you can take the following animals.

The list includes beavers. State Senator Grant Hauschild has introduced a bill to rectify the beaver eating ban, which has become the subject of considerable humor and jokes across the country. From kstp.com:

A bill introduced by DFL State Senator Grant Hauschild aims to answer at least one of those questions by once again allowing Minnesotans to eat any nuisance beavers they killed.

Here is the proposed legislation. The only change noticed by this correspondent is the proposed removal of the prohibition on human consumption of beaver at the end of the bill.

S.F. No. 811

From mn.gov (bold added):

Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 97B.667, subdivision 3, is amended to read: Subd. 3.  Permits and notice; requirements. (a) Before killing or arranging to kill a  beaver under this section, the road authority or government unit must contact a conservation  officer for a special beaver permit if the beaver will be killed within two weeks before or  after the trapping season for beaver, and the conservation officer must issue the permit for  any beaver subject to this section. A permit is not required:

(1) for a licensed trapper during the open trapping season for beaver; or

(2) when the trapping season for beaver is closed and it is not within two weeks before  or after the trapping season for beaver.

(b) A road authority or government unit that kills or arranges to have killed a beaver  under this section must notify a conservation officer or employee of the Fish and Wildlife  Division within ten days after the animal is killed.

(c) Unless otherwise directed by a conservation officer, the road authority, local  government unit, the landowner, or their agent may dispose of or retain beaver killed under  this section. Human consumption of a retained beaver is prohibited.

In the change proposed for 2025, the prohibition on eating beaver (bold lettering) would be removed.

Analysis:

This is another situation where language was slipped into a large bill without a good explanation. It doesn’t seem any single person is willing to take responsibility for placing the offending language in the omnibus bill.  A similar case occurred in Wisconsin in 1999. An administrative change was put into the law, which made it illegal to possess a firearm on or near the waters of the state. It took 25 years for the absurd provision to be noted and removed from the Wisconsin administrative code.

©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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