Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1914 — KILL PRAIRIE DOGS [ARTICLE]

KILL PRAIRIE DOGS

Slaughter Four Hundred Thousand of the Rodents.

Biological Survey of Department of Agriculture Destroys Animals in Western Reserves to Preserve the Forage.

Washington.—The biological survey of the department of agriculture has destroyed about 400,000 prairie dogs in the Cochetopa and Pike National forests of Colorado and the Tusayan and Coconino forests of Arizona. It is estimated that the amount of forage that the rodents feed upon would be sufficient for about 15,500 sheep or about 1,800 head of cattle, which would be valued at about $150,000. This was done at a cost to the department of about $,12,000, In view of the fact that Amerlcah and English furriers secure better skins from Siberia for five cents apiece, no market for the hides of the prairie dogs has been found. The glove makers state that the skins are rather small to be worked up economically. Last year the biological survey used 35,000 pounds of oats, 4,000 pounds of carbon bisulphid, and about 1,800 ounces of strychnin in the Cochetopa forest in the work of dog destruction. The local oats were of very fine quality, and it was found that the heavy oats that weigh about forty pounds to the bushel were very much more economical than the lighter oats. The dogs shuck the light oats so readily that they escape the poison which is in the form of a coating : but the heavier oats are more difficult to shuck.

The agents of the survey prepare the poison, which is mixed with strychnin with a starch mucilage of about the consistency used in starching linen, and by applying this to the oats, each kernel receives a fine film of poison starch. Many rodents which carry the grain in their pouches are poisoned by absorbing the poison from the 'pouches; without swallowing any of the grain. This is the case with the California ground squirrel. Agents have hundreds and hundreds of dead squirrels with their cheek pouches full and no grain in their stomachs.