THE PRAIRIE DOG MUST GO 



BY ROBERT E. CLARK, 



DEPUTY SUPERVISOR, LEADVILLE NATIONAL FOREST. 



Gi ) make the earth habitable for himself, man, throughout history, has been 

 .-.impelled to wage war on other animals whose existence has run counter 

 to his interests. Always he has killed off or driven out the beasts that 

 have interfered with him or his property. The rattlesnake and the wolf are now 

 unknown in many parts of the country, though the typhoid fly and the familiar 

 l,ui .unsmiling mouse still abound. From the saber-tooth tiger of primitive 

 times tn the plague-infested rat or the destructive San Jose scale, the fight 

 has <M.ne on. Had the killing been confined to such as these, the record 

 wi MI lil be better, for man has exterminated many kinds of animals which are 

 nut only harmless but useful. Just now he is after a most interesting little 

 animal, but one that is doing immeasurable harm throughout the cattle and 

 sheep ranges of the West. 



since prairie dog and white man were first introduced to one another, 

 cadi has iluiibtless considered the other an undesirable citizen. With the 

 entrance of the pioneers came the loss of horses and cattle through broken 

 b-u's as the result of stepping into prairie dog holes. Also man himself often 

 sutl'ereil broken bones as a result of being thrown from a horse which had 

 the misfortune to step into a dog burrow. Then came the stock-raising in- 

 dustry, and the sufferings and losses experienced by this industry has made 

 it eviilent that an infestation of prairie dogs on any portion of the range is a 

 decided hindrance to perfect handling of stock. 



Not only do the owners suffer direct loss from the necessity of shooting 



< k that have broken limbs, but yearly they suffer a considerable loss due 



to cattle Ill-ing light in weight. Cattle fall off in weight either from lack 



of fee.l or from being required to move about considerably to find the feed. 



Ererj pmirie dog hole or town on the range causes a considerable area to 



h.-cumr b:in- of jrniss or other forage, and it is but a few years after the dogs 



come in b'-tun- hu-ge tracts -are worthless to stock. The feeding capacity of 



s reduced not only by the area included in the dog towns, but also 



f..r a c.msiderahle distance surrounding these tracts, for their feeding grounds 



" IIM '" in'-lu.lnl in the range that the dogs destroy. Like other rodents, 



h:m- increased with the advent of man. The rapid increase in their 



mmher has becumc so pronounced that steps have been taken by the Biological 



Survey nf the Depai 'iment of Agriculture, by the Forest Sevice, and by private 



indi\iduaU t.. accomplish their extermination. 



