Ha! HSUS, the "fair and balanced" animal rights outfit!
We shoot them to control their numbers, and we dont make much headway. People have tried to poison them out, to no avail. The only thing that really affects P dogs is disease. Enough poison can do it, but it is a big flipping job, which no one wants anyway.
A dog town is a sight to behold. It is barren. Thats all that lives out there. Water runs off, dirt blows away, it holds no snow. Animals go around them. Drop a mouse in the middle and he will starve, if the dogs dont eat him first, which they will.
Thats not the point however. Sod poodles have been here for a long time, and thats how they conduct business. Live and let live, to a point.
When they start moving across the fence and lowering my property value, cutting my production, and creating a safety hazard......they get ventilated.
We have no interest what so ever in eradicating them. If we did, remember the wolves?, they would be gone. Simple as that. We exist with the prairie dog, and coyote, badger, weasel, fox, rabbit and so on. When those animals get too numerous we thin them a bit, if they still get too numerous, mother nature thins them a LOT.
So, thats how it works out here on the plains.
I have no idea about how urban prairie dogs work. But I suppose it would be fair for me to tell you folks to stop multiplying and to start living on top of one another. Tear out them golf courses,(except for Dave's) quit building homes in prairie dog country, and stay on your side of the fence. Mother Nature will thin you city folks out for sure if'n you dont smarten up.
The noble prairie dog is not threatened out here. Them silly little owls you speak of are doing okay too. I get a kick out of them.