Longmont airport purges prairie dogs
Activists criticize the killing of hundreds of the critters, but officials cite safety rules.
By John AguilarDaily Camera
LONGMONT — Animal activists are steamed that the city of Longmont decided to go ahead with the killing of several hundred prairie dogs Friday at Vance Brand Municipal Airport, an extermination officials said was necessary to comply with federal aviation safety directives.
Alison Collins, interim director of the Boulder-based Prairie Dog Coalition, said Longmont didn't take the time to seriously consider nonlethal ways of removing the animals from the vicinity of the airport's runway and parachute drop zone.
"There's always the option to work with other communities and cities to find relocation sites," she said. "It's not a mystery to look up and see what you can do instead of killing an animal."
But Don Bessler, Longmont's director of parks, open space and public facilities, said the city "exhausted all of those efforts," including fortifying a fence at a nearby prairie dog containment area and attempting to passively relocate the animals away from the runway and drop zone over the winter. Read More
I would imagine that everyone that is a member of the Prairie Dog Coalition probably lives in house with a small yard. So why didn’t each and every one of them offer to take a few dogs and put them in their yard? They suggested that the airport could have easily found a place to relocate them and what better place than the front yards of those trying to save them. Animal rights advocates continue to promote animals over the safety and welfare of human beings.
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