Photo Copyright Jim Robertson
http://www.care2.com/causes/thousands-of-prairie-dogs-in-danger-of-being-poisoned.html
by Alicia Graef
January 7, 2014
Animal advocates and conservationists are fighting to stop the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from poisoning thousands of black-tailed prairie dogs who live on the Thunder Basin National Grassland in eastern Wyoming.
The prairie dog management plan was put in place years ago, setting aside 85,000 acres where prairie dogs would be protected from poisons and shooting, but complaints from ranchers have led the USFS to propose going backwards and amend the plan to allow prairie dogs to be poisoned within a quarter of a mile of private or state land.
The management strategy was originally intended to promote ecological diversity and ensure prairie dogs and other species had a safe space to live, but the new plan would in effect take away 22,000 acres of this protected land and end up killing an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs, according to a joint press release from the organizations opposing the agency’s proposal, including the Humane Society of the United States, the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Defenders of Wildlife and WildEarth Guardians.
Unfortunately, prairie dog numbers have already been reduced by habitat loss and disease and because they are often seen as pests who need to be destroyed. According to the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, these prairie dogs now only exist on an estimated two percent of their former range.
Living in colonies known as “towns,” prairie dogs are considered a keystone species who are vital to the health of prairie ecosystems. Their disappearance will affect numerous other species who rely on them as a food source and as habitat developers for species who take advantage of abandoned burrows, including burrowing owls, raptors, swift foxes and badgers, among others. According to the Prairie Dog Coalition, as many as 140 species are believed to be affected by the role of the black-tailed prairie dog in North America.
Prairie dog advocates are opposing the proposal, not only because prairie dogs are important, but because adding more poison to the government’s wildlife management toolbox is dangerous and unacceptable. Using poison is a sickeningly cruel method for dealing with wild animals that results in a horrific death and has no place on our public lands. The use of poison also poses a threat to other non-target species as it moves through the food chain.
“These dangerous poisons shouldn’t be used anywhere, much less in one of our last best grasslands,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians.
Killing prairie dogs and using poison will also impact the recovery plan for black-footed ferrets, who have been brought back from the brink of extinction through captive breeding programs. Thunder Basin National Grassland is believed to be one of the best places available for releasing more of them, and many believe one of the easiest ways to ensure the success of the recovery program is to work on prairie dog conservation efforts simultaneously.
The organizations fighting this proposal are calling on the USFS to adopt non-lethal management strategies that include building vegetative barriers to deter prairie dogs from expanding onto neighboring lands, relocating prairie dog colonies from boundary areas to protected areas away from private lands when necessary and offering incentives to private landowners to coexist with prairie dogs.
TAKE ACTION!
Please sign and share the petition supporting non-lethal alternatives to manage prairie dog colonies and send an email directly.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/thousands-of-prairie-dogs-in-danger-of-being-poisoned.html#ixzz2pwHjboBx
Exposing the Big Game 
Reblogged this on Wolf Is My Soul.
I enjoyed several prairie dog communities in Colorado, only to find that locals and farmers have a deep hatred for them. That’s a shame. Thanks for your active awareness.
You’re welcome. I devoted a chapter to them and their plight in my book.
I’ve never seen a prairie dog until this post! & to think they too are on the danger list to be exterminated, wow AMERICA! WTF? You guys have the most unique animals, such as bears, wolves, coyote & these little guys just to name a few & now you want to take away their homes too? I’m really starting to believe the USA are nothing but cruel, heartless rednecks, sorry if this offends some of you decent fellows but seriously, I’ve never received so many petitions regarding murderous, lethal & brutality, regarding one damn country!!! I was planning a trip to the USA because I wanted to see, the bears, the wolf, the coyote & now even these little guys but if you continue to use such brutal tatics by the time myself & family get there, there won’t be anything to go “Wow!” at, but dead grass. Get a heart transplant USA! I am so posting this to twitter & facebook!
I am not offended by your view of the USA. I am ashamed of what we are.
Seconded!
Just remember Denderah & any of those who are kind to animals, its not those who are trying to defend these animals, the message above is for those who are continually using forceful tatics to kill these beautiful animals. No kind hearted person, who loves animals, should ever be offended by my comments. 🙂 It is Game/Trophy hunters who are giving the USA a bad reputation and this needs to be fixed just like China who torture dogs & cats, it is the people who kill for pleasure that gives our countries a bad reputation, it is the same here in Australia for those who kill croc’s, snakes & dingo’s, every country has its bad apples 🙂
I’m not offended by your comment either! You will however see plenty of cattle on public lands! There is no wild animal too large or too small that ranchers do not despise. Sheep ranchers even went after bald eagles, before they became protected. Just hit the national parks and you will still see iconic species, but woe to animals that wander outside the park boundaries.
Reblogga detta på Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
Thanks Jim! Signed.
Thanks for signing
The Livestock Industry is grazing domesticates (cattle & sheep) on these once-wild grasslands, and they are the ones who are demanding that the native animals, prairie dogs (& other wildlife) be destroyed. I have said it before, but will say it again: until ALL Public Lands Ranchers are removed from ALL Public Lands, no native wild animals will have peace or justice. Most “wildlife groups” have capitulated, genuflected, compromised, and collaborated with this Enemy of Wild Places and Wild Lives. Many of these groups have hunters and ranchers on their boards. How can caring people expect this to change, with this set up? The U.S. Forest Service is afraid of the ranchers. Wolves, prairie dogs, lynx, bobcat, mountain lion, bear, coyote & other native animals are considered “vermin” by the livestock/hunting lobby. There is a War Against the Wild going on out here in The West.
http://www.foranimals.org
That definitely sums up the situation.
I reposted this in your honor, for your undying support for prairie dogs: When the dust settles on man’s reign of terror, he will be best remembered as an egomaniacal mutant carnivorous ape who squandered nature’s gifts and goose-stepped on towards mass extinction, in spite of warnings from historians and scientists and pleas from the caring few…
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/essential-species-quiz-2/