Prairie dogs...(warning...animals being shot)

[Vtwin]

Don't like em, don't want em around...

http://www.dogbegone.com/video/maxcarn1.wmv

hopefully not a repost..

[Oni]

They never go away that I do know. I always wondered wtf do they want.

[ringojcp]

awful, i've never been one to kill for no reason, everything i've killed ends up on someone's dinner table. here's another snake thread

[nightraider]

Originally Posted by ringojcp

awful, i've never been one to kill for no reason, everything i've killed ends up on someone's dinner table. here's another snake thread

These are pest that destroy farm land and put financial strain and hardships on farmers who, in many times, have a hard enough time as it is.

Where I live prarie dogs have overrun farmland and are a huge continous problem and killing them almost isnt effective because they multiply so fast. I certainly wouldn't call it completely meaningless.

[retired]

Killing them is one thing, using a cannon on them like the shooter did to blow them up is another. I would have appreciated a warning as to what was being shown.

Tho I don't live in an area that is being destroyed by them I understand both Vtwin's and nightrider's position; I just believe there is a more humane way to kill them. I don't know what caliber round he used, but I'm sure there are others out there that would do the job without shredding them like that.

My 1/2 cent.

[okxd45]

IMO you couldn't dispose of them any more humanely than that. They never knew what hit'em! A bee bee gun, now that would be inhumane.
I wasn't aware of prarie dogs being such a big problem. Well, I take that back. I had heard that cattle farmers, at one time, were having problems with their cows stepping in the prarie dogs' holes and breaking legs. The state (OK) allowed them to be hunted out of season to cut down on the population. I'm normally not for killing an animal for no reason, but when the animal inteferes with a person's livlihood and nature isn't keeping them in check, then man's intervention seems ok to me. Besides it looks like a cool way to target practice!

[east_stingray]

From what I've heard, if hunters don't go after them, the farmers have to poison them, which kills them all. Hunting certainly won't kill a whole colony, as the ones underground usually stay there after the shots begin. There was some sort of movement in one of the western states by some liberal feel-good group to outlaw prarie dog hunting and all the farmers pointed out that the dogs would nearly go extinct if they did that because they would have to poison on a mass scale.

[WyoBob]

I used to think I had a "range rat" problem on my ranch in Nebraska. I was wrong. When I moved to Wyoming, I saw how bad things could get. I spent one summer helping a friend in his new business of spraying noxious weeds and range rat control. We did over 10,000 acres of actual dog towns. Didn't put a dent in the overall population. We treated patches of 300 acres that were absolutely bare dirt. Not a blade of grass. No danger of an animal breaking a leg there. They had no reason to be there as there was nothing to eat!

WyoBob

[Brickboy240]

I know alot of people here are not keen on killing something you're not going to eat, but in West Texas, they shoot prarie dogs because they dig huge holes that cattle end up injuring their legs by stepping into. They step in the prarie dog holes in the middle of the night. Sometimes, the cattle are hurt bad enough, the rancher has to put them down. If it happens alot, dues to more and more prarie dog holes, it eats into their herd and makes their rangeland worthless.

I saw several pastures near Lubbock, where prarie dogs had made it look like the surface of the moon. the land needed alot of work to fill in all the very deep holes. These critters do more damage than you think. They also carry rabies, distemper and other diseases. To the people in West Texas and the panhandle, they're just giant rats. In certain areas, farmers pay shooters to come out and thin out the prarie poodle colonies..they need to be contained, if you run cattle, sheep or goats.

One group's cute, furry animals is another's pest...I guess.

- Brickboy240

[nightraider]

Originally Posted by Brickboy240

I know alot of people here are not keen on killing something you're not going to eat, but in West Texas, they shoot prarie dogs because they dig huge holes that cattle end up injuring their legs by stepping into. They step in the prarie dog holes in the middle of the night. Sometimes, the cattle are hurt bad enough, the rancher has to put them down. If it happens alot, dues to more and more prarie dog holes, it eats into their herd and makes their rangeland worthless.

I saw several pastures near Lubbock, where prarie dogs had made it look like the surface of the moon. the land needed alot of work to fill in all the very deep holes. These critters do more damage than you think. They also carry rabies, distemper and other diseases. To the people in West Texas and the panhandle, they're just giant rats. In certain areas, farmers pay shooters to come out and thin out the prarie poodle colonies..they need to be contained, if you run cattle, sheep or goats.

One group's cute, furry animals is another's pest...I guess.

- Brickboy240

Exactly. I live in Lubbock, TX and I remember when the hippies came out and said that killing these creatures is wrong because we don't use them for meat. Anyway in response they built a prarie dog reserve that cost the city something like 1.3 million dollars, what a waste. If you were to see the devistation a prarie dog can do to land, you may reconsider.