My Prairie Dog Died Today

[Christi]

My Prairie Dog Died Today

My Prairie dog died today.
I never held him close in my arms, or heard his excited 'yahoo' when I came home from work.

But my prairie dog died today.

She never took treats from my hand, or slept in my bed at night.

But my prairie dog died today.

He lived in a field where he played in the sunshine, and dug holes to his heart's content.

She ate grass, and dandelions, and chased butterflies.

He played tag with his brothers and sisters, and traded kisses with his mother.

She liked to roll in the dirt, and would sit very still while her mother groomed her fur.

My prairie dog died today.

He was sitting inside his burrow when the poison was poured into the hole.

A newspaper shoved into the opening, weighted by a shovel of dirt blocked his escape, and he drowned in his own blood.

My prairie dog died today.

She and her family sat huddled and frightened in their nest when the
bulldozers rolled over their field, crushing them in their homes.

My prairie dog died today, and I did nothing to save him.

"Can't you see what they're doing?" people cried. "Stop them!".

'It's not my land.'

"Then move them. Hurry!"

'I have no place to take them'.

"They're dying! DO SOMETHING!"

'I...can't.'

© 2001 Becky Deck

Copyright © 2001, Prairie Dog.Info, All Rights Reserved

[capnsweets]

This is horrible and sad! Awww!

[Dallas]

OMG!!!!!! That's one I haven't heard about! How horrible! They just killed another 8,000 at StorageTek in Colorado.

I just wish these MORONS would TRY to see what a Prairie Dog is truly like - and then work to relocate them to a safer habitat. It makes no sense to torture them (or any other animal) like this.

[Lizgirl]

That is sad. I thought these little guys were on some animal protection list. When I looked into getting one I was told that licenses to sell them were difficult to get. What is the current status of the prairie dogs in the US?

[Scarlette]

there is an island off the scottish mainland where hedgehogs (not a native species there) is breeding and killing off some of the ground nesting birds there. The government department responsible for these matters said that it would be too costly to move the hogs so they were going to kill them all off. A week later they had changed their mind because thousands of people called their msp, mp and local council. It was actually brought up in the parliament. Now they are all to be caught and transported off the island. People power does work but you have to be loud about it. The givernment has to listen because you pay their wages. I'm pretty sure that there are more people who would write to their congressman/woman to bring up this issue than who would be against trapping and moving the animals.

[babypd]

Oh, that's so sad, I was just sitting here with tears in my eyes reading "My Prairie Dog Died Today". It's just so devastating what happens to them. They are just so precious and if only people can see that. It's just so very wrong!!!!