They're very smart imbeciles. Once they've shut down p-dog shooting on BLM land, they'll go after shooting on private land.

Did you notice that they want the taxpayer to pay for dusting the dog towns?

George

Holmes - I am an avid varmint shooter. My observations come from shooting prairie rats for over 20 years (long before it became �fashionable�). We used to see a lot of black tailed rats. In fact, we used to see hundreds of thousands of dog towns throughout the Dakotas and New Mexico. You could literally step out into any field and start shooting till you either ran out of ammo or water.

However, today we don�t see a tenth of the dog populations that we used to and many of the areas we used to shoot are gone. Furthermore, I have not seen a black tailed dog in several years. On one hand, this is mission accomplished. Prairie rats are a huge nuisance and shooting is substantially better than poisoning. On the other, we have put a massive dent in population numbers to the point that rats are becoming difficult to find.

The whole point is we can either continue increasing the volume of wholesale shooting and possibly wipe them out, or we can conserve what is left and enjoy the sport for many years. If you asked me 15 years ago if we could potentially shoot out the prairie dog population, I would have said you were nuts. However, witnessing the drop in productive shooting areas, I am not so sure.

There needs to be a balance and limited controls. If black tailed rats are becoming endangered, we as shooters need to respect this fact and take them off the butcher�s list. I have no problems with this at all. Conserve it or lose it.

I agree that declining prairie dog populations are a serious issue, both in terms of sporting (consumptive) uses, non-consumptive uses, and ecological considerations.
While sport shooting can certainly reduce populations, by its very nature, it cannot, by itself, exterminate populations. Sport shooters hunt prairie dogs because a large volume of shooting can be had. When a "town" is reduced to a small number of individuals by sport shooting, then sport shooters will cease to shoot that town. Given a brief opportunity, the town will recover in a relatively short period. Extirpating prairie dogs by sport shooting is like trying to get rid of mosquitos by swatting them with your hand.

Chemical and biological agents, on the other hand, can decimate an entire area rather quickly. Cultural practices can alter an environment and make it unsuitable for prairie dog colonization or re-colonization. These are the real culprits in the decimation of prairie dog populations -- habitat destruction, disease, and poisoning.

In fact, while I generally respect the NWF, they made a huge mistake in calling for ESA listing of the prairie dog (after all, how can an animal which numbers in the multi-millions be classed as "endangered"?) What did result from the NWF faux pax was that thousands of land-owners knee-jerked, believing that the listing effort was serious, and ran out and poisoned millions of dogs "while they still could". What a travesty! As a matter of fact, the NWF probably has done more to exterminate prairie dogs with this public relations screw up than all of the sport shooting in the last half of the twentieth century.

What should the sporting community do? First, support research and good information in regard to the prairie dog. Once landowners understand the animal's dynamics, they become less antagonistic toward it and are more willing to allow viable populations to exist on their lands. Second, support efforts at state wildlife agencies for good husbandry (not "management") of the prairie dog as a NON-GAME, NON-REGULATED wildlife resource. Wildlife departments don't need to set seasons and bag limits on prairie dogs, they just need to pay attention to the factors which are beneficial to stable prairie dog populations and act accordingly. Third, don't act like some of the landowners and go out and shoot all you can next week "while you still can", or your fears may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And fourth, help otherwise well-intentioned non-hunters understand that we all want to see healthy populations of all types of wildlife, and be willing to work with non-hunters toward that goal.

Well said you guys...

It is a very sad fact that, at least in the part of Nebraska where I grew up that
p-dog populations (whole towns) have been decimated -- neither by disease or
shooting, but by poisoning. I would whole-heartedly agree with anyone who would
make it unlawful for this practice to continue one more day.