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Colorado city to remove, euthanize prairie dogs

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This story might work with the headline ‘Prairie dog, friend or foe?’ Officials for the city of Boulder, Colo., appear to fall in the ‘foe’ camp. The small rodents apparently are living it up on some city-owned property and the city wants to move some of them out ... and euthanize others. Boulder’s Daily Camera newspaper reports:

Boulder officials have finalized plans to relocate hundreds of prairie dogs inhabiting four city-owned sites and to euthanize hundreds more. The plans call for spending as much as $388,400 on removing the rodents, capturing and euthanizing others, fumigating those left behind in their burrows and installing metal barriers so they don’t return.... The city is working to determine when the removals will begin, but several problems still need to be overcome. The Black Footed Ferret Recovery Program, which is among the places that might accept a bulk amount of prairie dogs — dead or alive — will not accept prairie dogs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 1. City code also restricts relocating prairie dogs during the birthing, nursing and early rearing period of March 1 through June 1. Trapping is also difficult in colder months, officials said. In the past, the city has paid contractors $66 to $374 per prairie dog for removal. The city is in the process of obtaining the permits needed for the work.

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