The UK's health watchdog appears to have contradicted claims by the environment department that a family of escaped beavers pose a risk to human health.
Government plans to capture East Devon's wild beavers have been cast into doubt after Freedom of Information requests by Friends of the Earth revealed that Public Health England (PHE) does not believe the animals would increase risk to human health from disease.
The Government says that the beavers should be captured because of fears that the animals living in the River Otter in East Devon would increase the risk to human health from the tapeworm, Echinococcus multilocularis. However, a freedom of information request by Friends of the Earth casts doubt on Government justifications.
Once native to the UK, beavers were hunted to extinction 500 years ago and it is still unknown how they made their return to the wild on the banks of the river.
An email from a Defra official says:
"PHE accept that the main risk of an incursion is likely to be through international movements of pets, both legal and illegal... Therefore they are not convinced that the three Devon beavers necessarily represent a significant increase in overall risk."
Friends of the Earth campaigner Alasdair Cameron, who obtained the FOIs, said: "This new evidence completely undermines Government plans to remove Devon beavers from the wild.
"If Public Health for England doesn't believe the beavers pose a significantly increased risk to human health, why do Ministers want to remove them from the wild? In any case they could be easily tested and let go - just like wild beavers in Scotland."
"PHE accept that the main risk of an incursion is likely to be through international movements of pets, both legal and illegal... Therefore they are not convinced that the three Devon beavers necessarily represent a significant increase in overall risk," a Defra official emailed colleagues after meeting with Public Health England.
The health watchdog's view that the beavers on the river Otter would not significantly increase risk was also based on the fact there is a group of around 100 "free-living" beavers in Scotland already, on the river Tay, which Scottish authorities had planned to trap but later decided to leave alone, the email shows.
The documents show that trapping the Devon beavers, most likely in cages that have already been procured, and putting them in captivity, will cost the government nearly £50,000.
DEFRA has also acknowledged that any beavers born in the wild could not be carrying the disease, yet the Government still plans to capture them.
"With the Government admitting that any wild born beavers could not harbour the disease, capturing them would be completely disproportionate.
"At a time when biodiversity all over the world is in freefall, we should be looking to protect these species, not trap them. DEFRA needs to work with local people and experts to come up with a solution which allows these animals to remain in the wild, based on testing and re-releasing them."
A Defra spokeswoman said: "The beavers may carry a disease which could pose a risk to human health – although this risk is low, we cannot ignore it. That is why we are taking precautionary action to test the beavers. Their presence could also have a negative impact on the surrounding environment and wildlife.
"Once captured and tested, we intend to rehome them in a suitable location, and all decisions will be made with the welfare of the beavers in mind."
