Anyone who has visited Lawton's Elmer Thomas Park over the last day or so may have noticed some dead prairie dogs laying around.

The city's parks and recreation department has embarked on a plan to cull 99% of the estimated 10,000 prairie dogs in the park and areas around it. They want a population of only around 100.

I'm concerned that if they're going to do this poisoning in one massive sweep, they're just going to kill off the entire prairie dog town. There won't be any reliable way to kill off that many prairie dogs without simply killing them all. Those animals go from hole to hole. With a lot of dead prairie dogs, the ones still alive will visit vacant holes and eat any poison that may remain.

I also believe they're conducting this massive poisoning at the wrong time of year (they should have done this sort of thing back in November before the mating season began). With the poisoning happening now, all of the unborn or newly born litters will be wiped out. Lots of park visitors enjoy seeing the little baby prairie dogs emerging from their holes in April and May. They're not going to see that this year. And if the poisoning is not handled in a careful manner residents won't see those baby prairie dogs ever again either.

Let's also not forget about the SMELL of thousands of dead prairie dogs rotting all at once. That's another good reason to do managed culling in specific areas rather than one massive burn of poisoning.

Sure, some people hate the prairie dogs, but most people feel they are a positive and unique attraction to Lawton's Elmer Thomas Park. It would be a shame for them to disappear.

I'm also concerned about the "lawyer angle" on all of this.

Mayor John Purcell mentioned the issue of liability when it comes to prairie dog holes in the park. I'm sorry, but I think anyone who can't manage to avoid the large mound and painfully obvious hole of a prairie dog burrow then perhaps they deserve a compound fracture of their leg. It's called "personal responsibility." But since the United States has 70% of the world's attorneys, lots of stupid Americans can't admit their own fault for a lot of the idiotic, klutzy, hair-brained things they do. They have to sue someone else and make money from their own mistakes.

I'm against removing the prairie dogs completely from Elmer Thomas Park. If it is over an issue of avoiding lawsuits brought from the ambulance chaser species of lawyer then they need to just stick up some signs with a message a little like this: "you're a doofus if you step into a prairie dog hole!"

The prairie dog town overpopulation happened because nothing was being done to manage the population in the first place. It has been at least 7 or 8 years since the last measures of population control were taken. At that time, hundreds of the critters were vacuumed out of their holes and relocated to the wildlife refuge (where I presume everything from hawks and coyotes to bobcats feasted on the things).

I agree that prairie dog town must have its population numbers reduced significantly. At the current size, park vegetation is being seriously stressed and with that many prairie dogs crammed on top of each other any disease, like bubonic plague, could wipe out the entire prairie dog town in a flash. It just doesn't appear to me the city's officials are going about this effort in the right way.

Probably going this route to get what they want done quickly and to have all the protest all at once....Banking on those who find it offensive to protest at first, but over time let it die off

It is a pretty sad sight looking at the many dead prairie dogs on the news...Just not going to be a real happy ending to this no matter which route they take

Now if they could have just educated the dogs on how to use condoms it wouldn't have come to this point :bright_id

This is so foolish. They need to take a lesson from the National Parks system--even the people in charge of the refuge 10 miles away could have told them how to keep this population under control and not have to wipe them out.

Time for some new management.

Yeah...The situation would have been much more palatable if they had just managed the population over the years instead of one day waking up and realizing there are thousands in the park now

I'm with ya on this one

The Mayor and some of the reps in the parks and recreation department have clarified their language on that liability thing on who they fear will step into holes: kids running loose from their parents.

I still don't buy that angle. If that view was applied to many other areas we wouldn't even be able to drive motor vehicles or do much of anything else. Kids run out into the street. Again, personal responsibility must come into play, as must good parenting.

The city has been putting poison down into the prairie dog holes and then covering them. We're still seeing lots of dead prairie dogs on the surface because many of those tunnels are interconnected. The holes are often not isolated. Cover up one hole and the prairie dogs can come up out of another hole 10 or 20 yards or more in the distance. That's part of their defensive strategy to evade predators. This is also why I am concerned their mass poisoning plan could backfire and wipe out the entire prairie dog town. If that worst case scenario does indeed happen there will be some pretty nasty political fallout over it.

Update on the Prairie Dog situation:

This past weekend, on Saturday, a couple dozen people organized a protest at Elmer Thomas Park over the poisoning of prairie dogs. City officials said they were suspending the poisoning effort for now.

I took a walk around the park on Sunday to see what all had been done. I would estimate at least half, but perhaps closer to 70%, of the prairie dogs in Elmer Thomas Park have been euthanized. There's quite a few areas which appear to be almost completely cleared of prairie dogs, save for maybe a stray burrow every 30 or so yards. Mounds have been covered and it looks as though service trucks drove tires over the mounds to compact the soil into the holes. A few areas look untouched by the population control project.

I spotted one hole along the bicycle path that had been covered up. A surviving prairie dog moved into it and pushed the body of its former resident up to the surface.

IMHO, the effort appears to be a bit backwards. I think the poisonings or relocations of prairie dogs should have been targeted to the areas where the animals went outside the park boundaries. And then the efforts should have moved inward inside the park.

What is needed in all of this is balance.

I think it is wrong for the city to try to rid Elmer Thomas Park entirely of prairie dogs. But I also believe some of the protesters are wrong -at least the ones who seem to want no poisonings at all. Something has to be done to get the population under control. And that's for the health of the prairie dog town itself. With rampant overpopulation, if disease like bubonic plague strikes it would wipe out the entire prairie dog town very quickly.

A former city councilman told me that the parks and recreation department used to regularly manage the prairie dog population. They would periodically cull some of the 'dogs in the park as well as any that tried to settle outside the park boundaries. That practice had gone on for decades. But some residents found out about it, cried foul and brought the population management practice to a halt. Since then the prairie dog situation has mostly been neglected.

Looks like the state is taking a look at it Bobby H

LAWTON — The State Department of Wildlife has opened a criminal investigation into the City of Lawton's use of poison last month on prairie dogs at Elmer Thomas Park, agency spokesman Neles Rodefeld confirmed today

My shih tzu does this trick where I tell her to sit pretty and she stands on her back legs and looks like a prairie dog. It's really cute. I just thought I would throw that out there.

Looks like the state is taking a look at it Bobby H

LAWTON — The State Department of Wildlife has opened a criminal investigation into the City of Lawton's use of poison last month on prairie dogs at Elmer Thomas Park, agency spokesman Neles Rodefeld confirmed today


Good.

I hope the State Dept. of Wildlife echoes some of my recommendations, that the prairie dogs should continue to have a presence in the park -but a managed one at that.

The prairie dogs in Elmer Thomas Park have no natural predators to control their numbers. Bobcats, coyotes, badgers, black footed ferrets, certain snakes, owls and other birds of prey feed on prairie dogs in the wild. None of the ground predators make it into the park. Various hawk species will fly overhead during the daytime. But they have no brush or other cover in the park's wide open, expansive spaces to wage a surprise attack. Prairie dogs communicate with one another very well. Their warning barks and chirps to each other are highly effective. You should hear them fuss when someone walks a dog near them on the jogging or biking paths.

With no natural check on prairie dog numbers in the park, people must get involved. If they can find a place that can accept overflow prairie dog population, fine. However, the ugly truth is at least some culling will need to occur for the benefit of all interested parties.

I think the prairie dog saga just continues to get better in Lawton!! I guess now you can go to jail for feeding them? What if you feed them poison?


City outlaws feeding prairie dogs
Don't feed the prairie dogs

Lawton--The city is now making it illegal for you to feed the prairie dogs. It's their latest attempt to control the prairie dog population at Elmer Thomas Park and soon there will be signs up in the park warning you not to feed them -- or you could be faced with a fine and 60 days in jail. They say there won't be any officers on patrol, making sure people don't toss some bread or popcorn on the ground, but they hope this will change the attitude people have toward those prairie dogs. Think of it as going to the zoo -- you can't feed the animals there either.

We all know that their diet doesn't consist of Cheetos and Fritos and Orville Redenbacher popcorn, and all the things that they've been eating," said Council Member Randy Warren. "And it's true that the more you feed them, the more that they're going to produce."

While the city wants to control the population, the Humane Society recently reported there are far fewer prairie dogs in the park than the original estimate of five thousand. "But I was surprised to hear that as of now, they're best estimate is 1,200," said Mayor John Purcell. "She thinks we got rid of a lot with our last episode."

Council Members say that without your help -- the population could grow again, which would only harm the prairie dogs. "Feeding them is inhumane and cruel to the prairie dog," Purcell said. So now it is illegal to feed prairie dogs -- and if you do, you could be faced with a 60-day jail sentence and a fine. But city council says they do not want to enforce those strict punishments -- they just want to control the population. "Most zoos or parks that you go to have signs that say don't feed the animals," said Council Member Janice Drewry. "I don't think we're doing anything different here. I think we just put signs up and ask people not to do it, but I don't want to throw anyone in jail."

The act of Lawton's City Council voting to outlaw feeding prairie dogs is pretty stupid. The law is stupid for a couple of reasons.

1. The prairie dogs get nearly all their food from the vegetation in the park, not by handouts from park visitors. As a means of population control this new law will be a complete failure.

2. What good is this kind of law if it will not be enforced?

Elmer Thomas Park already has rules that are broken very often and rarely, if ever, enforced. For instance, dogs are not allowed in the park. Signs are posted clearly stating that rule. Yet just about every time I visit that park I see people walking their dogs and even letting them run loose in the park.

The Lawton Police Department is over-worked and under-staffed. They have a lot more important matters to deal with, such as growing levels of street gang violence along with all the other social ills already present. Busting people who feed prairie dogs is going to rank pretty low on the list of priorities.


While the city wants to control the population, the Humane Society recently reported there are far fewer prairie dogs in the park than the original estimate of five thousand. "But I was surprised to hear that as of now, they're best estimate is 1,200," said Mayor John Purcell. "She thinks we got rid of a lot with our last episode."

John Purcell is fooling himself if he doesn't think the recent round of poisoning affected the prairie dogs numbers all that greatly. The majority of the park's prairie dogs were indeed wiped out with just a couple night's worth of poisonings. If the crews had been given another day the entire population would have been eradicated. Despite the emergence of baby prairie dogs from their burrows in April and May the population is only a fraction of its former size. Some of the surviving prairie dogs have moved into areas of the park where prairie dogs were eliminated, such as the large, flat field behind McMahon Memorial Auditorium & the Museum of the Great Plains.

The City of Lawton will still need to develop a plan to control the prairie dog population. They need to get the plan established soon rather than just waiting another decade until the prairie dog town is overpopulated again.

And the city still has to do something about the prairie dogs outside of the park in I-44 right of way and land behind the Ramada Inn at 2nd & Ferris. That is one area seriously in need of population control.

I think they ought to outlaw prairie dogs eating vegatation in the park. That will get'em!

The point the City Council fails to realize is that a lot of residents in Lawton like having the prairie dogs in Elmer Thomas Park. If the park doesn't have the prairie dogs then the park will be a LOT LESS interesting.

The City Council's timing on that prairie dog poisoning couldn't have come at a more worse time either. It happened just before a property tax and sales tax increase (to fund some important things) came before the public. Any tax increase has a tough time passing as it is, but with enough people angry over the whole prairie dog issue it tipped a lot of decisions into the "vote no" choice.

They had a HUGE problem with those stupid rodents when I lived in Denver.

They also had trucks with vacuum attachments that they would drive around and stick down the holes...Sucking those little guys into a bin (unharmed). They could relocate an entire colony in a day.

Personally, I say just start shoving pythons down the holes.

Relocation would be a good goal. Bobby, you are the fist person I have heard that likes the prairie dogs. People actually liking them isn't something I had previously considered.

I lived in Lawton many years ago and always like the prairie dogs too.

Relocation would be a good goal. Bobby, you are the fist person I have heard that likes the prairie dogs. People actually liking them isn't something I had previously considered.

You obviously missed all the political fallout when the prairie dog poisonings first started taking place. It seems ridiculous, but I could actually see John Purcell losing in his next mayoral election due to backlash from a lot of animal lovers.

Sure, there are people who can't stand the prairie dogs and just want them all killed. Some just want them killed just for the sake of being able to kill something.

I feel like I am in a minority of SANE individuals. I do not agree with the militant animal lovers who say that none of the prairie dogs should be poisoned. I also do not agree with the folks that just want them all killed either. The argument is stupidly polarized by extreme points of view. I prefer the prairie dogs to be in the park, but in controlled numbers.

Like them or not, the prairie dogs give Elmer Thomas Park a lot more personality. Not many city parks have a prairie dog town. That park would be just another boring park without those animals. I believe the park's number of visitors would drop greatly if the animals were gone. I also believe the park would be seriously reduced in size and taken over by a bunch of building development if the animals weren't there either.

You've got to be putting me on?!?

I used to live in Fort Worth, once upon a time, there was a prairie dog town off 287. Tourists came to see it and the Prairie Dogs were healthy. It wasn't a problem. People pulled over on the shoulder and through traffic slowed. TPTB decided the Prairie Dogs were a hazard and killed them. They never came back. They lived there before the highway was planned.

I was in Elmer Thomas Park the night after Thanksgiving. We walked all around the park, at night. We never stepped in a prairie dog hole. Well, I might have. It didn't bother me. Leave the prairie dogs alone! It would have been cool for my daughter and niece to have prairie dogs chuff at them, at night.

Why would we feed them? They eat roots! I didn't even know that park had prairie dogs. Just leave them alone!