“‘You’re not going to kill it, are you?’ It was a question he tried to deflect by saying that the beavers were being captured alive in cage traps… His customers, on the other hand, usually didn’t ask. Asking would result in an answer they didn’t want to hear. They wanted to assume that the animals causing their problems would be removed by LaFountain and then relocated to some place where they could live happily ever after.” (65)

This passage illustrates the widespread ignorance towards environmental problems. While environmental issues are gaining recognition around the country, many still refuse to acknowledge human impact on our ecosystem and climate. Sometimes it is because of a fundamental difference in opinion, but more often than not, we can’t accept the impacts of our actions because we are too scared to acknowledge any wrong doing or any negative result.

In this passage, the people hiring LaFountain want to protect the trees around their house for their own aesthetic benefit. To them, the beaver is an enemy, but when they see it trapped in the cage, they are forced to accept that they are selling the animals life so that they can have a nicely landscaped property.