Post by BozoWise on Nov 9, 2003 0:21:31 GMT -5
Lubbock is spending another 17,000 on removing dogs. I need to start selling dogs. I could quit my job and become rich with as many of these as we shot each week.
Thin line of love and hate at prairie dog burrow
Story by Jon Herskovitz
June 25, 2003
LUBBOCK, Texas - The light flickers in the eyes of a
prairie dog emerging from his burrow and his nose
twitches to take in the dry air of the plains, leaving
the good Texan to wonder "Do I shoot the critter, blow
it up, cuddle it, quarantine it or ship it off to
Japan as a pet?"
The Texas Panhandle city of Lubbock was awash in
prairie dogs when it was settled over 150 years ago,
is still awash in the cute squirrel-like rodents in
its less developed areas.
But Lubbock is also wondering what to do with several
thousand prairie dogs on city land whose burrows are
thought to wash a precious aquifer in the dry land
with dangerous chemicals.
A new twist has been added to the Lubbock prairie dog
saga in recent days by the spectre of monkeypox, a
disease never found in Texas or the United States, but
likely transmitted through a group of prairie dogs
infected with the disease by Gambian rats imported
from Africa by a U.S. pet wholesaler.
Dozens of people in Midwestern states have been
infected with monkeypox after handling the exposed
prairie dogs, which had been sold as pets.
Prairie dogs are not dogs, but rodents. They typically
live in a family group and adults stand between 12
inches and 15 inches (30 cm and 38 cm).
Lubbock was forced to look its prairie dog population
in the eye last year when suspicions were raised that
a prairie dog town may be polluting ground water.
The town is located at a 6,000 acre (2,428 hectares)
facility where treated waste water is used as
irrigation water for farmland.
Texas environmental authorities said the treated water
may be making its way into the Ogallala Aquifer and
some in the area pointed the finger at prairie dogs,
saying their burrows hastened the flow of nitrates
from the waste water into wells.
There were many questions raised as to whether prairie
dog burrows helped filter the chemicals into the
wells, but the city said prairie dogs on the patch of
land must go.
LYNDA, THE PRAIRIE DOG HUNTER
Lubbock officials at first said they wanted to have a
mass extermination of the creatures on the city's land
for waste-water disposal, but two forces helped grant
the prairie dogs a rare stay of execution in Texas.
First, animal rights groups launched a protest against
the city's plans, complete with scores of tiny crosses
stuck into the ground at the site to represent dead
prairie dogs.
Second, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the
prairie dog homes were also used by burrowing owls - a
protected species - and efforts to eliminate prairie
dogs might also result in the deaths of the migratory
birds.
A compromise was reached to move the prairie dogs off
the city land and Lubbock called in its ace prairie
dog hunter Lynda Watson. Watson is the doyenne of the
prairie dog - an advocate of the flatland creatures
who can remove the rodents from the ground with her
bare hands.
Watson has already cleared about half of the land of
prairie dogs and will start clearing the rest of the
land from about early July. "We will take the prairie
dogs out of this area and everyone will be satisfied,"
Watson said.
After catching the prairie dog, Watson either
relocates them or sells them as pets. A prairie dog
with a certificate saying that it was caught humanely
by Watson can fetch about $300 in Japan for a plain
grey specimen and between $1,000 to $3,000 for a more
exotic rodent.
"Prairie dogs are funny species. You either love them
or hate them. There seems to be no ambiguity about
them," Watson said.
VIRTUOUS VARMINTS
The residents of Lubbock and other Texas Panhandle
areas have done both. Ranchers hate the creatures
because they burrow through farmland and their holes
become hazards for cattle and cowboys on horseback.
The Texas Park and Wildlife Department classifies
prairie dogs as a non-game vermin species, meaning
they have no protection. This means that on private
lands, licensed hunters can plug them with their .22
caliber rifles, suck them out of their holes with
giant vacuums or flood the burrows with propane and
then blow them up.
Lubbock has also embraced them and for a while the
character of Pete the Prairie Dog was the official
ambassador for the city. A prairie dog town in a city
park attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a
year.
Heather Whitlaw, a wildlife diversity expert for the
Texas parks department said prairie dogs have seen
their territory cut by 99 percent since the West was
settled, adding that the rodents are a keystone
species who support other species, such as the
burrowing owl, swift fox and prairie chicken.
"Prairie dogs are an important part of grassland
systems. They keep grass short and turn the soil over,
which provide new environments for lots of other
species," Whitlaw said.
Thin line of love and hate at prairie dog burrow
Story by Jon Herskovitz
June 25, 2003
LUBBOCK, Texas - The light flickers in the eyes of a
prairie dog emerging from his burrow and his nose
twitches to take in the dry air of the plains, leaving
the good Texan to wonder "Do I shoot the critter, blow
it up, cuddle it, quarantine it or ship it off to
Japan as a pet?"
The Texas Panhandle city of Lubbock was awash in
prairie dogs when it was settled over 150 years ago,
is still awash in the cute squirrel-like rodents in
its less developed areas.
But Lubbock is also wondering what to do with several
thousand prairie dogs on city land whose burrows are
thought to wash a precious aquifer in the dry land
with dangerous chemicals.
A new twist has been added to the Lubbock prairie dog
saga in recent days by the spectre of monkeypox, a
disease never found in Texas or the United States, but
likely transmitted through a group of prairie dogs
infected with the disease by Gambian rats imported
from Africa by a U.S. pet wholesaler.
Dozens of people in Midwestern states have been
infected with monkeypox after handling the exposed
prairie dogs, which had been sold as pets.
Prairie dogs are not dogs, but rodents. They typically
live in a family group and adults stand between 12
inches and 15 inches (30 cm and 38 cm).
Lubbock was forced to look its prairie dog population
in the eye last year when suspicions were raised that
a prairie dog town may be polluting ground water.
The town is located at a 6,000 acre (2,428 hectares)
facility where treated waste water is used as
irrigation water for farmland.
Texas environmental authorities said the treated water
may be making its way into the Ogallala Aquifer and
some in the area pointed the finger at prairie dogs,
saying their burrows hastened the flow of nitrates
from the waste water into wells.
There were many questions raised as to whether prairie
dog burrows helped filter the chemicals into the
wells, but the city said prairie dogs on the patch of
land must go.
LYNDA, THE PRAIRIE DOG HUNTER
Lubbock officials at first said they wanted to have a
mass extermination of the creatures on the city's land
for waste-water disposal, but two forces helped grant
the prairie dogs a rare stay of execution in Texas.
First, animal rights groups launched a protest against
the city's plans, complete with scores of tiny crosses
stuck into the ground at the site to represent dead
prairie dogs.
Second, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the
prairie dog homes were also used by burrowing owls - a
protected species - and efforts to eliminate prairie
dogs might also result in the deaths of the migratory
birds.
A compromise was reached to move the prairie dogs off
the city land and Lubbock called in its ace prairie
dog hunter Lynda Watson. Watson is the doyenne of the
prairie dog - an advocate of the flatland creatures
who can remove the rodents from the ground with her
bare hands.
Watson has already cleared about half of the land of
prairie dogs and will start clearing the rest of the
land from about early July. "We will take the prairie
dogs out of this area and everyone will be satisfied,"
Watson said.
After catching the prairie dog, Watson either
relocates them or sells them as pets. A prairie dog
with a certificate saying that it was caught humanely
by Watson can fetch about $300 in Japan for a plain
grey specimen and between $1,000 to $3,000 for a more
exotic rodent.
"Prairie dogs are funny species. You either love them
or hate them. There seems to be no ambiguity about
them," Watson said.
VIRTUOUS VARMINTS
The residents of Lubbock and other Texas Panhandle
areas have done both. Ranchers hate the creatures
because they burrow through farmland and their holes
become hazards for cattle and cowboys on horseback.
The Texas Park and Wildlife Department classifies
prairie dogs as a non-game vermin species, meaning
they have no protection. This means that on private
lands, licensed hunters can plug them with their .22
caliber rifles, suck them out of their holes with
giant vacuums or flood the burrows with propane and
then blow them up.
Lubbock has also embraced them and for a while the
character of Pete the Prairie Dog was the official
ambassador for the city. A prairie dog town in a city
park attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors a
year.
Heather Whitlaw, a wildlife diversity expert for the
Texas parks department said prairie dogs have seen
their territory cut by 99 percent since the West was
settled, adding that the rodents are a keystone
species who support other species, such as the
burrowing owl, swift fox and prairie chicken.
"Prairie dogs are an important part of grassland
systems. They keep grass short and turn the soil over,
which provide new environments for lots of other
species," Whitlaw said.
