Save the Prairie Dogs Inc

[MachV]

Buffalo Bob has a great point and I agree with him 100% that we should hunt responsably. Most if not all of my dog shooting is done soly for control= not elimination. Most ranchers can and will deal with prairie dogs to some extent but its a BAD idea to force them to deal with them! They may joke when you ask for permision to hunt to (kill them all) but usualy just point out an area where they are expanding and I consentrate on that area. A dog system that expands too fast is VERY seseptible to plague and poison but if the #s are kept even or they expand a little they stand a better chance of existing.
There is a world of difference between a dog system that gets poisoned for control and one that gets shot for control= The one that gets shot for control will have a LOT more wildlife in and around it!!!! Funny thing is the first thing that gets regulated is the shooting= then when the dogs get out of control they poison the heck out of them and kill most of the wildlife that depends on them too.
The bunny huggers would do well to shut their mouths and use their eyes and ears to learn the way the whole sysem works! A rancher can be a great allie of wildlife if you make it worth his while but try to regulate what he can do with land he owns is a recipe for failer. To think that blacktailed prairie dog numbers can be bought back to anywhere near their original numbers is impossible but I'm all for trying to expand their numbers where possible. There is a lot of State and Federal land in prairie dog country= all the Gov has to do is quit poisoning it and allow sport shooting. Its a win win deal for everyone exept those that think that shooting them is cruel and that poison and plague are humane

[sscoyote]

I have been shooting prairie dogs for more than 30 years now, and i've never seen a PD town that was completely eliminated by any means of control, especially shooting. I've never seen a town even come close to being controlled by even high pressure shooting. We used to shoot in 1 town that was poisoned, and came back several years later and it was as active as i'd ever remembered it.

U know what? I'm getting sick and tired of non-hunters attempting to set the std. with their emotional issues when they don't even have to pony up a cent to the management of wildlife. I say NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION!! God almighty what is up with these people? Seems whenever they see something they don't like they immediately want to get rid of it. All thought processes must enter through their anus travel straight to their heart where it stops, and the issues never reach their brain. "EWWW, it's gross--people shouldn't be doing that." And that's it, that's as far as it goes. The issue's resolved in their puny minds. Dang, i'm tired of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, i don't even mind them saying that kinda stuff--but it shouldn't be controlling the management of wildlife for crying out loud. What a screwed-up system.

[Boss Hoss]

Originally Posted by Buffalobob

That is about the way I was taught to hunt when I young and was just starting out. Go hunting and have some fun but make sure you leave enough to repopulate for next year. As I got older and better at hunting and graduated up from a single shot 22 to a shotgun, I had to expand my hunting territory to avoid having too big of an impact on the game populations. There are hunters who just kill and kill and then there are hunters who consider the future and conserve the species. Of course back in 1954, I only hunted small game as there were no deer in that part of north Alabama. Perhaps the tree huggers had killed them all.

What Mach V says makes sense given some of the documents I have read on the internet. While some pieces of the picture are still not clear to me, the whole thing has the smell of James Connaughton. It is his style of operating and it could not have happened with his approval.

So if you need the name of someone to blame for the prairie dogs situation, try him. One of the good things about being retired is I no longer have to sit across the table from him and try to protect the fish and animals and the children from him.

If you can get past who is to blame, then you can consider the future and ponder how you deal with the current situation with the prairie dogs.

Bob ---- you nailed it! That is what we do as well. In the over 30 years I have been hunting we have seen the game population go up and down. Jackrabbits, coyotes, coons, misc vermin populations all go up and down in time. On our land we have seen this cycle several times and now there are only 3 animals (feral hogs, dogs and coyotes) we kill on site every single time we see them. I quit killing bobcats several years ago because we have so many little furry 4 legged varmints running around.

Personally, and both the Federal and State Biologists agree that in our area the feral hog is by far and away the worst problem we have......