Are Nutria Headed Our Way Again?

Molly the pet Nutria

The Virginia Pilot: Nutria in Virginia? Yes, and special dogs are helping find the giant rat invaders

There’s an animal in my freezer that looks like a giant rat.

It was killed because it was acting oddly and because, well, giant rat equals heebie-jeebies.

But mostly, it was dispatched because we’d decided it was a nutria.

And nutria are outlaws: an invasive species that wipes out wetlands, devours crops and digs into dams — so dreaded it has its own wanted poster.

I’ve been keeping the carcass on ice — quadruple bagged — in case some expert wants to take a look.

Imported decades ago for their fur, nutria have been chewing their way north into Hampton Roads for years. Until recently, the James River confined them to the South Side.

Louisiana Nutria hunter

But now they’ve breached the Great Wall, getting a toehold in virgin territory, where conditions are even riper for a population explosion.

Sightings are being reported from Hampton to Mathews County, but the only presence that’s been confirmed is on the Chickahominy River, northwest of Williamsburg.

The infiltration was likely launched from Surry County, which nutria expanded into some time ago.

“The James isn’t that wide there and it only takes one pregnant female to make the swim,” said Todd Engelmeyer, regional biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. “It’s a miracle it hasn’t happened before.”

The ecological menace now has a clear path to the Potomac River, where it could cross into Maryland — a state that recently declared itself nutria-free after a $25 million, 20-year search-and-destroy campaign.

Nutria fur coat

I've posted about Maryland's war on Nutria before, when they started using dogs to hunt them in 2014 and when they declared victory in 2016. Those nutria were on the eastern shore, and were definitely contributing to degradation of the wetlands.

“Absolutely the last thing we want to see is them showing up here again,” said Jonathan McKnight, a biologist with Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources. “When I look south into Virginia, I’m really worried — for your sake as well as ours.”

The semi-aquatic rodents, which can top 20 pounds, typically prefer wetlands. With big orange teeth, they indulge their taste for plant roots, consuming a quarter of their body weight daily, creating swathes of dead zones known as “eat outs.”

Coastal marshes become mud flats, then open water. Erosion gets worse. And the vital nurseries and feeding grounds for all sorts of fish, fowl and blue crabs disappear.

Crockpot Nutria

So it doesn't sound like they're likely to wind up here anytime soon, given that they still have to cross to Potomac. The Western Shore has less wetland than the Eastern Shore, so much less potential habitiat. And, having eliminated them on the Eastern Shore, we'll know how to do it again if necessary. In the meantime, here's a Nutria recipe, Louisiana style.

Prepare the nutria meat. Thoroughly cover the meat with tenderizer and Cajun seasoning (Tony Chachere's is the best) overnight for best results. If pressed for time, cover meat with tenderizer and Cajun seasoning, and let sit for at least 1/2 hour. Cut meat into bite-sized pieces for best flavor. Use 3 to 4 pounds of meat for the following sauce recipe. If the hungry-man's portion is desired, use 5 pounds.

On low heat, in large pasta pot or good-sized heavy pan, slowly cook seasoned meat in 1 pound of real butter (with salt) until golden brown (about 20 minutes). Add 1 cup of chopped onions, 1 cup of chopped shallots, 1 cup of diced green bell peppers, 1 cup of diced celery, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of A-1 Sauce and 1 teaspoon of white pepper. Continue to heat on low, cooking for an additional 20 minutes.

Turn heat up to medium temperature, add 2 large cans of Ro-Tel diced green chilies and tomatoes - use medium or hot flavors to suit taste. Stir constantly for 10 more minutes to avoid burning the meat or the butter. Add 1 package of instant brown gravy. Only add the package contents. Do not add water as the package instructions indicate for making actual gravy. Tony's also sells a pre-made dark roux in a jar. If using this, add 1 Tablespoon of Tony's Dark Brown Roux. Turn heat to simmer. Add 2 large cans of your favorite tomato sauce (Prego, Ragu, Hunt's, etc.). My best results have been with Hunt's canned sauce -- use the garlic-and-herb-flavored sauce. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes. If sauce becomes thick, thin with small amounts (1/2 cup or less) of water. Taste for salt & pepper seasoning, and adjust according to taste.

For a traditional Cajun dish, serve sauce in large bowl with an ice cream scoop of rice in the middle. For a traditional American dish, serve sauce in large bowl poured over pasta or egg noodles.

I presume the equivalent Maryland version will involve Old Bay.  

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Samsung Sam finished on time and under budget.

And I'm Going to Eat Bacon Until We Get World Peace

And then, I'll keep eating it. Tiffany Haddish Vows To Wear Fur Every Day Until 'Police Stop Killing Black People'

Comedienne Tiffany Haddish will not be getting any vegans or animal rights activists to join her crusade against police brutality. To stop "police killing black people," the "Girls Trip" star has vowed to wear fur every day.

In a post on Instagram over the weekend, Haddish featured a photo of herself in a fur vest that was bequeathed to her by a fan, vowing to "wear it as much as possible" as some kind of Black Lives Matter statement.

I wonder who grows purple minks?

"I’mma wear it as much as possible. I don’t know if you guys know this about me, but I’m about to start protesting," Haddish said in the Instagram video. "I’mma wear fur every day until they stop killing black people. When the police stop killing black people, I’ll stop wearing fur. It’s my new protest."

Is that a giant vagina?

 Will she at least take it off an night?

Knowing full well that PETA and the animal rights activist lobby will not appreciate the fur protest, Haddish took the bull by the horns (or grabbed the flower by its thorns).

"So sorry, PETA!" Haddish unabashedly stated. "Don’t be mad at me. Be mad at the police," Haddish continued. "When they stop killing black people, I’ll stop wearing fur… Because people are important, and so are the animals."

Needless to say, the 39-year-old Haddish's newfound protest did not exactly sit well with certain animal lovers on social media. Music producer Russell Simmons, a staunch vegan, asked that Haddish reconsider her protest.

"White supremacy is a disease that takes on many forms and has many symptoms," Simmons wrote in the comments. "The abuse of other beings will not address that… or heal ourselves. I love you Tiffany but I wish you would reconsider this route of protest."

And they say comedy is dead.

Wombat-socho has Rule Five Tuesday up at The Other McCain.

Puttin' On the Dog

Pamela collecting the raw materials

Meet the woman who turns roadkill into fine fur

What most of us call roadkill, Pamela Paquin calls “accidental fur.” She takes the casualties of New England roadsides and turns them into accessories that sell for more than $1,000 apiece.

Pamela with some finished product

I found this article through Althouse, who reads fashion crap, so I don't have to. But as I believe I've said before, I have some experience with hunting, trapping and tanning hides, so I was intrigued. I was also impressed by the number of articles on it, and the variety of photos. She's getting tons of good press.

But her goal isn’t just to make money. She wants to make fur – fraught with controversy due to animal cruelty concerns – an ethical, sustainable fashion statement.

What happened to my brother?

While I'm strongly in favor of both well managed hunting and trapping, certainly making use of the roadkill is a worthy endeavor; let the vultures and other scavengers go on a diet.

The task isn’t for the faint of heart.

She harvested her first roadkill last year with the help of a hunter and a shot of whiskey. “I got this crazy knife that was completely wrong for the task, got my hazmat suit on, took a shot of whiskey and just started doing it,” Paquin, 39, said in an interview with The Washington Post.

Oh hell, it shouldn't take a shot of whisky; and if it did, one shot wouldn't be enough. Just start with a sharp knife, and put a clothes pin on your nose. But then, my teenage job often consisted of removing large numbers of dead fish from fish tanks at a whole sale tropical fish warehouse.

That first animal, a raccoon, was unfortunately harvested “too early in the season” for roadkill. The animal was rotten and its insides had totally liquefied. Gross.

Most people would have probably abandoned the whole idea after that. But Paquin persevered — and now raccoon is her most popular pelt.

Around here, one would have a plethora of squirrels (the fresh fall crop are exceptionally stupid), lots of deer, which make lousy fur but good leather, and a splmattering of opossum, skunks and raccoon, and of course the dog and cats. Coyotes and bobcats live locally, but I have yet to see one, let alone one flattened.

A few years ago, Paquin found herself at a crossroads with little money and a daughter to raise on her own.

Last year, she found herself “sitting in the woods literally staring at the trees. Winter was coming. I was like: ‘What am I doing to do with myself? There was that dead raccoon on the road the other day. My cousin’s a hunter. Maybe I should just do this.’”

No fair stealing from Nike!

Paquin has never been shy about collecting animal carcasses. In 6th grade, she brought the dead animals she found by the roadside of her suburban Massachusetts home to school for dissection in the lab.

It didn’t seem weird to a kid who grew up on a dairy farm in a family that hunted and raised animals. As she put it: “We were all elbow deep in all of that.”

 One of the many ways that city and rural dwellers differ is their degrees and areas of fastidiousness. Rural folk tend to more fastidious about homosexuality, and less so about animal guts.

When she decided to start her business, her first stops were the highway department and animal control in Jaffrey, N.H. “I just made up some business cards and went around to all the local guys who are responsible for picking up roadkill and was like ‘Hi, my name is Pamela. Will you call me when you have roadkill?’”

Sure, why not?

Wombat-socho snuck in under the wire with "Rule 5 Sunday: Fightin’ Words" after a bout with trolls.