June 14, 2001

9:38 PM

No! Not the ferrets! Aaaaaah!
A wee dilemma for animal rights supporters. Should the prairie dogs be moved to a new location? Or fed to endangered black-footed ferrets (cue Psycho music)! The horror.
posted by CRS (7 comments total)

Hey, ferrets gotta eat too, right? Hmm.... On second thought, I wonder what grilled Prairie Dog tastes like. Like chicken? Think of the possibilities. Prairie Dog Hot Dogs. Prairie Dogs on a stick. Wild Prairie Dog burgers. Coming to a state fair near you!
posted by Logboy at 10:39 PM on June 14, 2001

They are usually killed before being given to the ferrets.

That's no good... they should just let the prairie dogs loose so the ferrets can hunt them down fair and square.
posted by RylandDotNet at 11:02 PM on June 14, 2001

At the beginning of the article it states the location Littleton, Colorado so I'm guessing Arapahoe County is in Colorado as well (I don't know Colorodo country structure, please forgive me). If that's the case, they might not want to let the prairie dogs loose alive with the ferrets in the event that they end up somehow making a significant (and negative) change on the ecosystem in Arizona if the ferrets didn't hunt them all down. I don't know that they could (though look at what happened with rabbits in Australia). I'm just speculating as to why they might be fed to the ferrets dead.
posted by DyRE at 12:12 AM on June 15, 2001

I enjoyed this article because it made me think of something I've never considered before, namely, animal rights activists are against carnivores of all species, not just humans. I'm now amusing myself with a mental image of a world in which all humans have gone vegan, and PETA has teams of volunteers out trying to put rubbers on lions, tigers, and bears.......oh my.....
posted by BGM at 12:29 AM on June 15, 2001

Let's see if I have this right:

Development-- loss of habitat-- fewer prairie dogs-- no food for ferrets-- ferret breeding program-- prairie dogs prepared for ferret feast.

I've no love nor hate for prairie dogs but I do hate to see the world being developed when already developed areas are either a) underdeveloped or b) empty.

The story does create an interesting conundrum. And a lot of P's and F's
posted by Dick Paris at 1:04 AM on June 15, 2001

They're being fed to the ferrets unnaturally. That, I think would be the issue of animal rights activists, not that there are carnivores in the wild. Most of the push behind animal rights is to keep things natural and undisturbed. As a native Littletonian Coloradan I submit, Prairie Dogs are not a nuissance nor overrunning anything. It's just human development is encroaching on the homes of a small rodent-like (yes taxonomically rodent) animal. Humans continue to refuse life in symbiosis with nature.


Who will speak for the prairie dogs? Fools they are, I guess, for doing so.
posted by crasspastor at 1:08 AM on June 15, 2001

But since there are so many of us it will inevitably be impossible to live in symbiosis with nature, unless we start eating our own or feeding unwanted children to the ferrets in order to save the prairie dogs... after all, prairie dogs have rights too... kidding, of course... kind of anyway...
posted by prototype_octavius at 6:43 AM on June 15, 2001