Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reportedly blamed beavers for recent devastating floods in Poland and other central European countries and urged residents to take precautions.

The floods were the worst in Central Europe in at least 20 years, Reuters reported. ReportedAt least 23 people were reported dead, seven of them in Poland.

“Regarding the presence of beavers on the dikes, it is not the first time you have suggested that rapid changes are necessary,” Gazeta Wyborcza Wrocław quoted a translation of Tusk's remarks at a crisis management team meeting in Głogów. Reported“We took the decision in 2010. Environmentalists were outraged, but there are priorities. Sometimes you have to choose between the love of the animals, the safety of towns and villages and the stability of the dikes.”

Tusk told residents to do what they had to do within the law and said he would defend their decision.

“If there is a need for legislation, we will address it within a week,” he said. (Related: Video shows brutal aftermath of first U.S. hurricane of 2024, 8 dead)

Dr Andrzej Czech, a beaver expert and environmental adviser to the Polish government, He told Politico Hunters and farmers wield influence in the agrarian conservative Polish People's Party (PSL), one of Tusk's coalition partners, and while hunters would love the chance to quickly hunt beavers and reap the rewards, ordinary people would also be happy with a quick solution.

Beavers do sometimes flood farms, but the incidence is low, Czech said.

Czech Vyborcha said. Tusk's claim that beavers caused the floods was “improvised pyramid nonsense,” he said. The beavers have helped store about 7 billion cubic feet of water in Poland's places where it is most needed. The plan to kill the beavers was “an act of stupidity,” he added.

Czech recommended that building a levee about 40 feet back from the river or reinforcing the levee with steel mesh would help.

The beaver population in Poland reached about 137,000 in 2019. Research in 2022Regulated hunting could help control the population, the authors recommended.

German wildlife manager Gerhard Schwab also opposed killing the beavers, but said they could certainly damage dikes, Politico reported.

Schwab recommended protecting the surface of the levee with wire mesh to prevent beavers from digging through it and building a new levee out of gravel.

Floods destroyed property and infrastructure across Romania, Poland, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic.