For Immediate Release

August 22, 2018

Mike Harris, director, FoA’s Wildlife Law Program; 720 841-0400 michaelharris@friendsofanimals.org<mailto:michaelharris@friendsofanimals.org>

Jennifer Best, assistant director, FoA’s Wildlife Law Program; 720.949.7791/ jennifer@friendsofanimals.org<mailto:jennifer@friendsofanimals.org>
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A change in federal policy that would allow the removal and killing of thousands of threatened Utah prairie dogs imperils the species to appease a relentless local drive for development, Friends of Animals asserts in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Utah.

FoA’s lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service challenges the agency’s April 2018 decision to rollback previous habitat conservation plans and mitigation methods established to protect the prairie dogs, which were declared an endangered species in 1973 after their population dropped to a few thousand.

More than 7,000 prairie dogs could be removed or killed over a 10-year period under the new FWS plan, plus an additional 15,000 independent of development, totaling more than a quarter of the entire…