Prairie dog shoot draws fire from national group

A national animal protection organization has asked the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to ban prairie dog killing contests such as one scheduled for this weekend in Carbon County.

[DWK Jr]

Stop this madness! Teach children to respect all life!!

[SNJ Norway]

Regulating overpopulation of predators or other animals is simply necessary from time to time and often impossible without hunting them. It is absolutely wrong to call such hunting madness or lack of respect for "all life".It may look as if there is a tremendous overpopulation of the prarie dogs in some areas of WY. In other words hunting them is important to get the number under control or in harmony with available feeding resources. HOWEVER: as a devoted hunter myself I find it rather tasteless and psychologically unfortunate to make a "contest" out of such a job. Destroys the general public's respect for decent hunters and hunting. So contests like this is a very unintelligent and unfortunate initiativ- in my opinion.In my country such a thing would be unthinkable.

[SNJ Norway]

DWK Jr wrote:

Stop this madness! Teach children to respect all life!!

you mean : including Bin Laden???

[russelllady]

The contests are a little silly, but the rodents have to be controled. Their holes are a danger to cattle and horses. Would it be more humane to poison them?

[SNJ Norway]

russelllady wrote:

The contests are a little silly, but the rodents have to be controled. Their holes are a danger to cattle and horses. Would it be more humane to poison them?

Poisoning in nature must be absolutely last resort I
presume.
Anyone happen to know if overpopulation of rodents( Prairie dogs) was a problem in North America prior to the white man came in and made it land for cattle
and grain? If not what was nature's way of keeping their numbers in balance ??

[secretsquirrel]

Even if overpopulation is a problem, shooting the poor prairie dogs isn't the right answer. Why not try a more humane method of population control?

[timberwuff]

A bullet in the brain is about as nice a death as a prairie dog can ask for. Usually they die of either the plague, a raptor plucks them from the ground and begins eating before they are dead, or a coyote rips them to pieces. Praire dogs are low on the food chain, so they reproduce frequently and litters are large. Therefore, over population can occur faster than other wild animals. Shotin them is okay, but it gets boring pretty quick. When I was a kid I could kill over 100 in a day, but I haven't shot at a prairie dog in 20 years now.

[SNJ Norway]

secretsquirrel wrote:

Even if overpopulation is a problem, shooting the poor prairie dogs isn't the right answer. Why not try a more humane method of population control?

It is a possibilty of course to catch them, enroll them and send them across to the mountains of Afghanistan as the U.S. response to Bin Laden's suicide bombers....they are uniformed already so
scarcity of tailors will be no problem and they go underground quicker than Al Qaida....

[yourdaddy]

all prairie dogs must die form long painful deaths

[yourdaddy]

die dog die!!!

[metcalf]

there GODs creatures, poor little doggies

[metcalf]

how would you like it if a dog popped a cap in your butt

[metcalf]

poor little fella didn't have a chance mmmhhh

[satan]

i only need five more for a family on my mantle

[bill]

They pop like bubble rap when you drive over them

[MeanandNasty]

secretsquirrel wrote:

Even if overpopulation is a problem, shooting the poor prairie dogs isn't the right answer. Why not try a more humane method of population control?

Such as?

One reason they are overcrowded is their natural predators are either hunted or gone. Coyotes are obviously not enough to keep them in check.

[MeanandNasty]

Prairie dogs also carry the fleas that cause bubonic plague (yes, a few cases occur every year in the states where the prairie dog flourishes). Feral cats pick up the fleas and transport them to domestic cats, which transport them to...you guessed it, people.

Furthermore in the town where I live, they are hazards to humans not only because of plague, but for people who step in their numerous burrows. They aren't just "cute little furry critters." They are enthusiastic cannibals that eat their own roadkill, dragging them into their burrows to devour later.

I don't advocate eradicating them, but they need to be controlled. I've seen them poisoned (long, slow, painful death) and have seen them drowned when their burrows were flooded to get rid of them, and I've seen them shot. Unless you have a better idea (trap and relocate is not an option because of their sheer numbers and carrying capacity of the land), then of the three, which seems the most humane?

[geterup]

didnt we pay thousands to get rid of them last year?there still there

MeanandNasty wrote:

Prairie dogs also carry the fleas that cause bubonic plague (yes, a few cases occur every year in the states where the prairie dog flourishes). Feral cats pick up the fleas and transport them to domestic cats, which transport them to...you guessed it, people.
Furthermore in the town where I live, they are hazards to humans not only because of plague, but for people who step in their numerous burrows. They aren't just "cute little furry critters." They are enthusiastic cannibals that eat their own roadkill, dragging them into their burrows to devour later.
I don't advocate eradicating them, but they need to be controlled. I've seen them poisoned (long, slow, painful death) and have seen them drowned when their burrows were flooded to get rid of them, and I've seen them shot. Unless you have a better idea (trap and relocate is not an option because of their sheer numbers and carrying capacity of the land), then of the three, which seems the most humane?

[Hanna Resident]

R any of you people even from hanna? This is hanna's forum and what we do in our town is what we do. You self rightous SOB's should leave us alone. We leave u alone

[dick face]

yes we did pay an exterminator thousands and they are all back..

geterup wrote:

didnt we pay thousands to get rid of them last year?there still there
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