Prairie dogs poisoned
Cedar City, UT (US)Incident Date: Monday, Apr 28, 2008
County: Iron
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
State wildlife officials are investigating the poisoning deaths of at least 11 Utah prairie dogs in a southwestern Utah subdivision.
Lynn Chamberlain, a spokesman for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said Tuesday that 10 of the dead prairie dogs were lactating females and that each probably was nursing four pups apiece.
Chamberlain said the agency became aware of the problem Monday, when a woman out for her daily walk in Enoch noticed just a few of the federally protected rodents poking their heads aboveground from their burrows. Normally there are 100 or more.
"She thought it was unusual and called," Chamberlain said.
When investigators arrived at The Fields subdivision, they recovered 57 peanut-butter balls laced with poisoned grain. They had been placed over the weekend around and in the rodent burrows and in the yards of some houses.
"This is a dangerous situation in a neighborhood with kids and pets around," Chamberlain said.
The culprit or culprits could face state and federal felonies. Chamberlain said a reward of at least $1,000 will be offered for information leading to an arrest.
"This is an extremely careless act," said Lt. Scott Dalebout, who heads DWR's law enforcement in southern Utah. "I visited every resident in the subdivision and raised their awareness of the problem, asking them to keep eye on kids and pets."
A threatened species, the Utah prairie dog has been a source of contention for decades in the region, frustrating landowners seeking to develop prairie-dog habitat and environmentalists pushing for increased protection of the critters.
Just last week, three conservation groups and author Terry Tempest Williams filed a lawsuit in federal court in Salt Lake City seeking to halt a plan to relocate the rodents to Forest Service lands.
Conservationists are particularly concerned about trapping efforts set to begin in July at the Cedar City Golf Course. Last year, more than 400 animals were trapped there.
The suit argues that more than 90 percent of the trapped prairie dogs will die.
"They should be protected where they are," Nicole Rosmarino of New Mexico-based WildEarth Guardians said last week. "As it stands, it is little more than an extermination program."
Dalebout recognizes the dog dilemma, but insists poisoning is not the answer.
"It is above and beyond prairie dogs and has become a public-safety issue."
Case UpdatesOfficials are offering $8,500, up from $1,000, for information about the killing of 12 Utah prairie dogs.
The federally protected animals were discovered last week in an Enoch subdivision, just north of Cedar City, after they ate poison-laced peanut-butter balls placed on or near their burrows.
Lynn Chamberlain, a spokesman for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said Tuesday the initial $1,000 his agency contributed toward a reward has been joined by $2,500 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and $5,000 from the Humane Society.
The burrowing rodents are listed as a threatened species, making it a federal felony to kill them | Source: Salt Lake Tribune - May 7, 2008
Update posted on May 7, 2008 - 11:54AM |
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