Save the Prairie Dogs Inc

[MachV]

Most places and times the Gov mandates the poisoning heck they even finance it but limits the sport shooting
The bunny huggin fools killed more dogs with their last try at saving the prairie dog than all of sportshooting to date. Faced with the Gov telling them what they could do with land that was occupied by dogs= the ranchers elliminated the dogs. Towns we had ben shooting on for years all of a sudden where gone and even entire systems where eliminated
That and the whole black footed ferret fiasco...Nuthing spreads the plague and discontent faster than a booming dog system!!
You cant shoot a blacktailed town out,thats a fact....Poison and plague sure can raise cane with them though.
Sorry for the rant but expecting the Gov to help in any real way is like expecting to see someone worth voting for on a ballet!!!

[SamSpade]

MachV pretty much has it right! When the "BuffaloBobs" got the prairie dog on the endangered species list for a couple of years then removed it, the ranchers and the goverment (worried about grazing rights) got worried about permanent protection and started poisoning. The plaque is a more political correct than poison.

[Lime Dawg]

Let me preface this reply by saying I am not a native of the US (originally from the UK) but now I live in Boise, Idaho. I am a keen hunter and definitely to the right of center in my politics. My first experience of PD shooting was in Montana where a rancher friend has a booming 60 acre town on his land. He is quite happy to have this on his land because of the entertainment value it gives him and shoots it only 3 or 4 days per year when he has guests. After a day blazing away on the town expending all the ammunition we had I went around and surveyed the carnage. Never having had the chance to kill on this scale before I began to think about what I had done. I then set out to explore the reasons why the PD is killed. During my research I was most suprised by the breeding habits of the PD, they reproduce relatively slowly as has been stated earlier. They are a very interesting animal and I thoroughly enjoyed my research. Did you know for instance that until they reach epidemic proportions there has been shown to be no impact on cattle weight? That PD's actually increase the quality of the grazing available? It is sad that there is such misunderstanding and mistrust between the two sides that we all cannot work together to ensure a healthy, managed population of PD's. When you look at the work that hunters have done to help threatened species it is sad that we tend to have little respect for the humble PD. It is a keystone species of the prairie ecosystem, without it there may be no more Black-Footed Ferrets, Burrowing Owls, Ferruginous Hawks all of which depend on PD's. How will you feel if they aren't around for your children's children to enjoy?

[Gary Morgan]

MachV has got it ALL right, in my opinion, and Lime Dawg does too. The PD isn't all bad, but with just a little environmental change such as a drought, the PD does morph to ALL bad. When the grass is gone, and the dogs start to grub the roots, the grass is all gone and the top soil begins to blow away. I've spent a lot of time on the phone lately, and most conversations end with "They're all gone. We poisoned them out." I hunted last October on a 320-acre pasture in the Texas Panhandle one day and had a great time. I called yesterday to see if I could get permission to access the property again, and I was told that the property was sold the end of 2007, the dogs were poisoned and center pivots installed. Things sure do change fast, and I'm afraid if somebody doesn't do something faster, PD hunting will be a thing of the past.

[SamSpade]

Originally Posted by Lime Dawg

they reproduce relatively slowly as has been stated earlier.
there has been shown to be no impact on cattle weight? It is a keystone species of the prairie ecosystem, without it there may be no more Black-Footed Ferrets, Burrowing Owls, Ferruginous Hawks all of which depend on PD's. How will you feel if they aren't around for your children's children to enjoy?

I can see that you have no experience with prairie dogs. Your quotes are right out of the "Feel Good Peoples" handbook. "Keystone Species", "no effect on cattle weight" and "improve grazing", I am sure that you will sleep better tonight after enlightening us!

You have never seen a prairie dog town that is 25 miles across and some that cover 50,000 acres or more. If you had you would see the damage they do to cattle ranchers and their grazing land. As you enter the town you will come out of green lush grass, then grass and sagebrush, then just sagebrush and when you finally get to the center of town there is nothing but bare ground that is washing away the top soil every time it rains.

As far as reproduction being slow, I have seen babies running around in October!

You do not see those size of dog towns today and mostly because of your kind that got the prairie dog on the endangered species list for a couple of years. You caused the ranchers and the government to poison every town they could before the prairie dogs were protected permanantly and that would put the ranchers out of business. The government denies doing any poisoning and blames it on the plaque, but it is funny that you find dog towns right up to the property line between private and public land.

[Buffalobob]

He is quite happy to have this on his land because of the entertainment value it gives him and shoots it only 3 or 4 days per year when he has guests.

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.

[Lime Dawg]

You're quite right Sam, as I stated I have very little experience of PD's having come to the US from across the pond. Unfortunately I am disappointed but not suprised by your attitude. I suspect you may well be one of those types who'd like to wipe out every other predator just so we have more deer, elk and other game to harvest. The things I have stated are facts agreed by both sides of the argument. You keep on believing what you feel is correct. You may even be correct in the fact that the earth is flat, who am I to argue after all I'm just a tree hugging, commie immigrant ? Also as a senior member of this forum I think you should give BuffaloBob a little more respect!