Larimer County to Evict Loveland Prairie Dogs to Turn Them Into Food for Raptors
Roughly 250 prairie dogs are getting booted from their colony in Loveland, and they are NOT going to like where they are headed. Sorry boys (and girls), but the county has a building to build, and gosh darn it, they’re going to build it!
The raptors are hungry and Larimer County has the grub. The Reporter-Herald has the full story on how, because the county needs to get started on building a new building in Loveland, they’re going to gather up all the prairie dogs living in an unofficial open space in east Loveland and feed them to the raptors at Rocky Mountain Raptor Program. ‘A Second Chance for Freedom’ is the motto of RMRP. It seems ironic, as these prairie dogs have run OUT of chances.
They initially wanted to put the new Larimer County Building that's going to be in Loveland, in The Foundry. Well, the City of Loveland and the county couldn’t come to an agreement on it, so the county said ‘Fine, we’ll go out to that open space off of Denver and 1st Street!'
Nobody asked the prairie dogs what THEY thought of that idea.
Sure, there was a coalition that tried to get a place for the colony to move to, but it didn’t get done in time before the county said, ‘Enough! We need to get them there squirrel-cousins outta there!’ It doesn’t help how Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently did a survey and found that Colorado has PLENTY of prairie dogs; they are far from being endangered.
So, throughout March, which is the mating season for the prairie dogs, they’ll be captured and turned into food for ailing raptors at Rocky Mountain Raptor Program, which takes in about 300 raptors a year. 250 dead prairie dogs will go a long way toward helping those raptors live a long life.
Take a look at this prairie dog steal the show in this funny video!