LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Killing beavers is legal in the state of Kentucky, but MSD said it no longer wants any of its vendors to follow that law when trapping nuisance beavers.
The company is taking a look at its contracts after WHAS11 asked questions based on concerns brought to the news station by a woman who lives near Whipps Mill Road. A creek is behind a neighborhood on the road where Lisa Barker lives.
"I walk my dog here usually once a day around lunchtime," Barker said.
Barker said she usually sees geese, ducks, beavers – but nature for some means nuisance for others.
"[On Thursday] we were walking and there was a pickup truck with Black Diamond Pest Control on it," Barker said.
Black Diamond has a contract with MSD to trap nuisance animals, sometimes that means beavers.
MSD said the animals can build dams on waterways that need to keep flowing for flood control like the creek on Whipps Mill Road.
MSD's spokesperson Sheryl Lauder told WHAS11 a Black Diamond Pest Control employee confirmed the company had killed three beavers this week.
Lauder said in the contract with Black Diamond Pest Control it does not specify what to do with trapped animals – something it wants to change moving forward, to specifically mandate they be relocated and not killed, even though Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife says it is legal to kill beavers.
When WHAS11 reached out to Black Diamond Pest Control the manager said the company's "number one goal is to relocate animals to an area they can thrive; there are circumstances, like sickness, that force you to go through that process using humane methods."
The manager also vowed that all traps are humane and follow guidelines.
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