NJ Beaver Video Was Used In Anti-Immigrant Propaganda, Fact-Checkers Say

MAHWAH, NJ —Leave it to beavers to become the latest fodder for anti-immigrant propaganda.

A recent beaver attack in Bergen County is being used to fuel anti-immigrant sentiments up north in Canada, says a French fact-checking site.

As reported last week on Patch, a beaver attacked an 8-year-old boy who was fishing at a lake in Mahwah on May 3. The boy was rushed to the hospital for treatment.

Days later, police announced that they had captured the animal, and that it had tested positive for the rabies virus, which is fatal to humans if not treated immediately.

Police told the public to reach out to health officials if they had any contact with the animal.

Within days, people began reacting online by accusing the boy of disturbing the beaver. Some even doubted the animal had rabies.

"Team beaver for sure," posted an online commenter.

Others claimed he was from an immigrant family.

"Even the beaver don't like these immigrants," posted one Facebook user.

They may have been reacting to a separate video posted online slightly earlier that day, showing a different beaver encounter.

North Jersey resident Michael Noonan told Patch on Thursday he had posted a video to Facebook last weekend showing a beaver charging out of the lake in Mahwah toward a group of people. In that video, someone tosses the beaver back into the water. People are heard laughing.

"Two separate incidents happened that day," Noonan said. "Apparently an 8-year-old child was bitten later on in the day after my video was taken ... nobody was hurt in my video. The people who were attacked by the beaver stayed and continued to fish afterwards like nothing even happened."

"New Jersey beaver attack video misrepresented as showing Canadian newcomers," reported the French fact-checking site AFP Fact Check on Thursday, displaying a series of memes with stillshots from Noonan's video alongside slogans blaming immigrants.

One meme says, "Canadian Patriot Beaver Attacks Indian Family In The Wild! ...Even the animals are tired of mass migration."

"Even the beavers in this country want the immigrants out," says another meme.

The AFP website noted, "While the government has backtracked on the number of newcomers it is allowing into the country, false claims about immigrants to Canada have repeatedly spread online. The posts claiming the video circulating on social media showed a beaver attacking immigrants in Canada are similarly inaccurate."

While doctored memes and fake news can spread rapidly around the internet, in Canada, there's an added wrinkle — users of social media sites like Facebook cannot post links to news articles in order to clarify the truth, because the company Meta has not paid news organizations, as required by the Online News Act.

Noonan said on Monday that he had seen the anti-immigrant posts.

"The internet is a crazy place," he said. "People will twist anything for views."

8-Year-Old Boy Speaks Out

The 8-year-old boy does not appear in Noonan's video, but did share his story with NBC News over the past weekend.

"We were fishing, and he, like, jumped up really fast out of the water," says the boy, P.J., who lives in the town of Oakland. "Then he just started chasing us ... It, like, broke my skin, because he had really big teeth."

"There was zero provocation," the boy's mom says in the clip, adding that the was no "rhyme or reason" to the way the beaver behaved.

"It was not expected at all," she says. "And as a mother, I'm partly here because I want to tell people that the need to report these things. I know another family was attacked before ours. I know us reporting it protected other people."

Rabies In Beavers

Experts say that it's rare but possible for beavers to contract rabies and transmit it to humans. It's much rarer for smaller rodents to transmit it because they die of the virus quickly, but groundhogs have been known to spread it, experts say.

Mahwah officials said anyone who had contact with the animal should reach out to health officials immediately. People who were bitten by the beaver on Sunday are currently receiving medical treatment.

"Everyone is advised to avoid wildlife, as any warm-blooded animal can carry rabies," officials said.

The Mahwah Health Department can be contacted at 201-529-5757. Police can be contacted at (201) 529-1000 ext. 210.