Editor,
On June 24 of this year, the First Baptist Church of Los Lunas hired a pest control company to eradicate prairie dogs on its property. The method the company used to kill the animals was legal, but certainly not humane orˇsmart.
They were fumigating the burrows with a deadly gas.ˇWhen the pest control person was told by a neighbor that burrowing owls were present, he continued to gas them anyway. Burrowing owls are federally protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Raptor Protection Act.
In fact, the pest control company should have done an environmental impact report before gassing the burrows to make sure there weren't any endangered or protected species in the area, including burrowing owls and black-footed ferrets.
The truth is that prairie dogs do not go around attacking people or biting children. The only way for a child to get bitten by a prairie dog is if he or she carelessly handlesˇone or sticks his or her hand in a burrow. Female prairie dogs will protect their pups, but they will certainly not attack people.
Prairie dogs are not filthy. They are cleaner than most other animals, and the fleas they have are not transmitted to dogs or other animals. Almost all of the fleas found in New Mexico are specific to certain animals, and that includes the fleas found on prairie dogs. The only way a dog or other animal can get the fleas is by killing and eating the smaller animal.
As for the method used to kill the prairie dogs, the pest control company used Fumitoxin, the most hideous product available. When Fumitoxin is used to kill animals, the results are extremely cruel. The active ingredient in Fumitoxin is aluminum phosphide, a deadly gas that releases phosphine gas into the burrows when it is exposed to air. Phosphine gas burns the skin and eyes of the prairie dogs as well as the mucous linings of their mouths and lungs as they attempt to breathe.
These animals do not just go to sleep when the gas is introduced into their burrows. They burn until God mercifully takes their little souls.
Prairie dogs are not a threat to society in any way, shape, manner or form. If you can't live with them, they can be removed and relocated - they don't have to be massacred.
Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund
UNM staff
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