WildEarth Guardians

Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Complaint for Endangered Species Act Listing of Black-tailed Prairie Dog

WildEarth Guardians and partner groups filed this lawsuit in Federal Court challenging the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's failure to list the black-tailed prairie dog as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Contact: Jay Tutchton

In 2000, the Secretary of Interior declared the black-tailed prairie dog “warranted” for listing as a Threatened species but that the Secretary was “precluded” from actually listing and protecting the species by more urgent concerns. The species benefited from some protection as a “warranted, but precluded” candidate species until the Secretary abruptly determined it “not warranted” for listing in August 2004. This lawsuit challenges that 2004 decision. Black-tailed prairie dog populations have declined by at least 98 percent over the last century, a fact conceded by the Fish and Wildlife Service in its decision to remove the species as a Threatened candidate. Current populations are fragmented and isolated, tiny remnants of the massive colony complexes once found across the Great Plains from southern Canada through northern Mexico. The government succumbed to pressure from the livestock industry and land developers, traditional enemies of prairie dog conservation, to allow more prairie dog eradication instead of needed protection. The Bush administration and its appointees within the Department of Interior have consistently sided with industry over the nation’s wildlife and were clear opponents of prairie dog listing. Since the 2004 “not warranted” decision lethal control of black-tailed prairie dogs has sharply increased. South Dakota successfully executed its state-wide poisoning plan and pressured the U.S. Forest Service to poison prairie dogs on federal public land. The U.S. Forest Service and several states have allowed increases in recreational shooting. Colorado just approved use of the Rodenator-a device that blows up prairie dogs in their burrows, killing and maiming them and any other wildlife that might be in the burrow such as burrowing owls, rabbits, and others. The most common “control” technique is zinc phosphide, a poison that causes an agonizing death by internal hemorrhaging over the course of three days. Counties in Colorado, Kansas, and elsewhere are attempting to wipe out their prairie dog populations completely, and several counties have established funds to subsidize landowners for killing prairie dogs.

Read the complaint (PDF)