Four Corners ranchers and farmers troubled by influx of prairie dogs

Animal rights activists love prairie dogs. But typically, farmers and ranchers hate them. There's always a battle over what to do when there are too many. Trap and relocate or exterminate? In the Four Corners, there's a prairie dog invasion. “We need our wildlife around, but we do need to manage that.” And Hodiak Ewing spends a lot of time managing the wildlife. This season, it is prairie dogs he is focused on. “I would say five times as many,” he said, “There’s a lot a lot of prairie dogs.” He says the surge could be because most control methods have been banned, and that few people consider just moving the prairie dogs because of how much it costs. “The problem with relocation, unless you have private property that people want prairie dogs, we can’t relocate them to federal or state land or anything like that,” said Ewing. The prairie dogs are causing serious trouble for farmers and ranchers. Their mounds damage equipment, and horses and cows can step in holes and break their legs. “The biggest problem is the plague and human safety. They carry fleas that carry the plague that bite people it is fatal,” Ewing said...more