The EPA has shamefully approved inhumane poison to kill prairie dogs

Black-tailed prairie dogs have been decimated down a scant 2% of their original population across the eleven states of their home range. Not only are they a threatened species currently being considered for ESA protection, but the black-footed ferret, one of the rarest animals on Earth, depends on prairie dogs in a symbiotic relationship for survival.

Prairie dogs have routinely gotten what little protection they have been given, due to the 25 million dollar campaign to keep black-footed ferrets from total extinction.

So, what would possess the Environmental Protection Agency to approve not one, but two, cruel and inhuman poisons to be used for killing prairie dogs? Could it be pressure from special interest groups like the Cattlemen’s Association and the US Farm Bureau? Are the poisons being used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to “manage” prairie dogs?

Evidently, it’s not pressure from the USFWS according to the Defenders of Wildlife petition. In fact the USFWS asked the EPA to consult with them before approving Rozal, and not make any further progress on approving the new poison, sadistically called Kaput-D. But the EPA chose to ignore the request and quietly approved the blood-thinning poison, which causes the animal to slowly bleed out during a long and agonizing death.

The reason USFWS and environmental groups oppose the use of any kind of poison on prairie dogs, aside from the inhumanity of it, is the fact that they are a keystone species, upon which dozens of other species depend on for food and shelter. Specifically: black-footed ferrets, swift foxes, badgers, golden and bald eagles, burrowing owls and ferruginous hawks.

There is concern that any raptor or animal would be exposed to secondary poison after consuming a dead or dying prairie dog laced with lethal chemicals. Secondary poison can cause death or impairment sufficient to make predation more likely.

Why are prairie dogs hated so much?

Specifically, by ranchers, developers, and special interest groups, who refuse to see prairie dogs as anything more than a nuisance. They claim that prairie dogs compete with cattle for food, although they lived and co-existed with bison and other large herbivores for many tens of thousands of years.

The Department of Agriculture designated prairie dogs as “pests” in the mid 1800’s and millions of them have been slaughtered since then for crop land conversion and development.

The five remaining species of prairie dogs are hanging on by a thread, due to their inconvenience to people, their inability to survive disease, and massive habitat destruction.

Environmental groups have fought for decades to get prairie dogs protected under the Endangered Species Act. Their importance to our Great American Plains is immeasurable, but prairie dogs are still routinely shot, poisoned and bulldozed, without regard for the natural world.

Prairie dogs are social, communal, personable, and intelligent animals, which have a language that rivals that of dolphins. Studies show that prairie dog vocalizations can identify and differentiate the type of predator and the corresponding level of threat from that predator, as they “yip” out warnings to the colony. They live in cotories or families in large underground tunnels and chambers. Breeding happens in early spring and each female can have 3-5 pups. However, they only breed one a year, regardless of the “they breed like rabbits” myth.

Prairie dogs are a very unique species that deserves a better break than man kind has bestowed upon them. They innocently go about their daily lives just trying to survive, without evil intent or malice toward humans.

No animal or living thing deserves to die a slow, agonizing, torturous death caused by poison. Every single individual involved in this horrendous decision, including the head of the EPA, Lisa JacksonLisa Jackson--should be ashamed of themselves.

Please sign the petition by Defenders of Wildlife to stop this outrage.

More information about prairie dogs

***Copyright DelilahStarling 2009.