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Prairie Dog Contest Kills


	John White

Summertime ushers in a host of time-honored pastimes like baseball games and trips to the beach, but in some parts of the United States, the season also brings out a brutal and bloody recreation: The prairie dog killing contest.

Prizes are awarded and trophies are handed out, but the facts behind these contests reveal them to be massacres more than sport:

Contestants set up shooting benches in varying distances from a prairie dog colony, and they each fire as many as 1,000 rounds of ammunition at the unsuspecting animals to see who can kill the most in a specified period of time.
The prairie dogs are little more than fish in a barrel, as participants sit on their benches and fire as the animals emerge from their holes. Participants identify themselves as "shooters" rather than "hunters," because no search is needed to find the animals.
The kills take place nearly everywhere the animals call home. The classification of prairie dogs as "non-game animals" in many states means that they can be killed almost without restriction. Because of this lack of regulation, it is almost impossible to know how many of the events take place. Contests may be large annual events spread by word of mouth or initiated between a few bored friends on weekends.

The kills glorify the cruelty they inflict, with contestants typically cheering the explosion of “varmint vapor” with each shot.

Contestants receive extra points when a prairie dog flies into the air upon impact. Some shooters aim for specific body areas hoping to throw the animal in a certain direction, and some take out multiple animals with one shot. One child participating in an event explained that he and his friends competed to see who could shoot and flip the animal up onto a nearby fence. Shooters have a number of phrases to characterize the slaughter, including "Montana mist," "Dakota droplets," "red mist," "range rats," and "dog popping."
Some contestants aim to achieve the status of the 500 Yard Club or 1000 Yard Club in the Varmint Hunters Association by posing for a trophy picture with the dead animal they picked off at that distance. They collect their "trophies" by removing a body part, such as the tail, to tally up the number of kills. At the end of the event everyone returns to the check-in point to compare numbers and receive prizes and trophies.
Participants are attracted by money, bragging rights and frequent gambling on the side.

Shooters describe the contests as a way to relax and practice on a still target for the upcoming fall hunts. However, many hunters agree that this type of killing is not moral.

Jim Posewitz, a retired wildlife biologist and founder of Orion: The Hunter's Institute, condemns contest kills as a violation of the "fair chase" hunting ethic. In his book Beyond Fair Chase, Posewitz defines fair chase as the pursuit of wildlife in a non-competitive situation.
In 2001, in response to public outcry, Colorado passed a ban on most wildlife killing contests. In the past, the state hosted such events as the Nucla Top Dog World Championship prairie dog contest in which as many as 70 individuals paid an entry fee to participate.
In June 2006 the Wyoming branch of the federal Bureau of Land Management stepped in to stop a prairie dog killing contest on federal land after The HSUS brought the contest to the attention of wildlife managers. The Wyoming BLM explained that it does not generally issue permits to contest events owning, in part, to their ecologically reckless nature.

Shooters sometimes masquerade contests as a public service to remove pests from the ranching community, but prairie dogs wield a strong influence on the community structure of their habitat.

Known as a "keystone" species, prairie dogs provide habitat and food for a a number of other species, including burrowing owls, kit foxes, and black-footed ferrets (considered by some the most endangered wild mammal in the United States). Indeed, black-footed ferrets cannot live outside of prairie dog habitat.
Prairie dogs also influence the plant species composition in the grassland ecosystems they inhabit. Research has revealed that prairie dogs prefer short grass habitat, typical of areas that have been overgrazed by livestock. Prairie dogs historically coexisted with a number of native ungulates on the prairie, including bison, elk, and pronghorn antelope. In fact, these native cervid species will preferentially graze and rest in and around prairie dog colonies. Intact prairie dog colonies are considered areas of increased biological activity and diversity when compared with ungrazed or lightly grazed prairie ecosystems.
Once occupying millions of acres across the United States, prairie dogs are now reduced to less than 2 percent of their historic range. Just a few years ago the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considered the black-tailed prairie dog for the Endangered Species List, and many states track the decline of prairie dogs in their respective territories. But instead of protecting this valuable species, we reduce the animal to nothing more than a sitting target and cash prize.

Posted July 12, 2006

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