Prairie dogs "Menace or Myth"

[NukemJim]

Was listening to a radio show this AM when one of their guests claimed that prairie dogs were NOT A menace to horses or cattle. Claimed to be a rancher, quoted a Colorado university professor that came to the same conclusion.

He was unwilling to say that it never happened, but that if it did it was a rarity and so far down the list of bad things that happens livestock that it was not worth worrying about.

I am not a hunter, nothing against hunting just not my thing, so know almost nothing about this. I had always been told they were vermin and the land owners wanted people to eliminate them.

There has to be some landowners/ranchers/horsemen on THR does anyone with practical experience with P-Dogs know which is true?

Thank you

NukemJim

 

[usmarine0352_2005]

Look at all them holes in the ground.....look at all them horse and cattle legs. lol

 

[redneck2]

I'm not a rancher, but I've shot PD's multiple times. Where we go in Montana, it's about 90+ percent dirt, rocks, and sagebrush. There are only a few fertile valleys. Guess where the dogs are.

And where they are, there is zero, and I mean zero grass. Looks like a pool table.

If I were a rancher I'd kill every one of them I could. Actually, I'm not a rancher and I still do. It's like trying to kill every rat in the ghetto.

 

[kanook]

Wild hogs are doing us a favor by tilling the ground for us too.

 

[mokin]

I'm not a rancher either but we have prairie dogs everywhere. There are also cattle and horses. All these species seem to coexist. My take on it is they aren't that big a hazard, they're just fun to shoot. Sort of like "medicinal marijuana".

 

[oneounceload]

Not just cattle and horses, those holes are murder on certain pieces of expensive farm equipment

 

[J-Bar]

Prairie dogs also commonly carry Yersinia Pestis bacteria, the agent that causes bubonic plague.

If you shoot 'em be careful about handling 'em. And I wouldn't take any home as pets.

 

[Bigdog57]

Prairie Dogs. The reason Eugene Stoner really invented the AR15.

 

[nettlle]

We board horses and I can most certainly assure you that ground hog holes in a pasture and horses don't mix well. I would assume the same for prairie dogs.

 

[hso]

Not really a firearms topic.