Home Page
Action Alerts
Articles and Excerpts
Links
Contact Us
Photo Galleries
What's New


Jim Robertson's book, Exposing the Big Game

 


Action Alerts
Tell U.S. Forest Service: DO NOT Poison 16,000 Prairie Dogs

May 19, 2014

The U.S. Forest Service is considering a plan to poison as many as 16,000 prairie dogs in Wyoming’s Thunder Basin National Grassland. Prairie dogs are a keystone species and vital to the survival of many other animals. Tell the Forest Service to reject this heartless plan.

prairie dogs prairie poison
Image by Jim Robertson /
Animals in the Wild

Sign an online petition here

And/Or better yet, make direct contact:

Thomas Whitford
District Ranger, Douglas Ranger district
Thunder Basin National Grassland
c/o US Forest Service
Rocky Mountain Region
740 Simms Street
Golden, CO 80401
(303) 275-5350

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

In Wyoming, prairie dogs are slowly recovering from decades of hunting and disease, and Thunder Basin National Grassland contains some of their last protected habitat. But the U.S. Forest Service is considering a plan to poison any prairie dog colonies on the Grassland within a quarter-mile of private or state land. They could kill an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs, which are essential to the survival of many other species. Urge the Forest Service to reject this heartless and misguided plan.

SAMPLE LETTER:

I am outraged at the plan your agency is considering -- to kill an estimated 16,000 prairie dogs in Thunder Basin National Grassland. This would be inhumane to the animals and environmentally disastrous for the Thunder Basin ecosystem.

In 2009, in an exemplary decision, you set aside 85,000 acres of grasslands to provide a safe haven for prairie dogs from being shot, poisoned or gassed. Today, the Thunder Basin National Grassland is part of the remaining two percent of America's untouched prairie grasslands, and contains the best prairie dog habitat in the country. Prairie dogs are essential to the health of our grasslands but are victimized by misinformation and widely extirpated from their former range.

Furthermore, I understand the plan may call for anticoagulant poisons such as Rozol. Rozol, a barbaric poison, can take one to three weeks to kill prairie dogs. After being poisoned, they will bleed internally and externally, wandering more and more disoriented and vulnerable to predators. Animals that feed off of this keystone species -- including golden eagles, ferruginous hawks, swift foxes, turkey vultures, badgers, raccoons and coyotes -- will also fall victim to the poison and may die.

As a federal agency charged with protecting our nation's unspoiled flora and fauna, the Forest Service must turn down this plan to poison prairie dogs in the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Please find alternative methods for managing this species and the wildlife which depend on them.

Sincerely....

Return to: Action Alerts


Please check here for updates on Exposing the Big Game: Living Targets of a Dying Sport.
 


Copyright Information

This web site contains copyrights-protected images. These copyrighted images may not be published without permission, payment or licensing fee. Any reproduction of the images which appear in this web site, including but not limited to photos, artist rendering, derivative art, photocopying, digital enhancement or manipulation, transmission or retention and/or storage in a retrieval or information system of any kind, is prohibited without the prior written permission. Any usage without prior authorization constitutes copyright infringement and is punishable to the fullest extent of the law.
For information, or to order images, email Jim Robertson by clicking on Contact Us