BlackTailedPrairieDog_CowsHousesGroundwater_Seyffert_Kenneth_AmarilloTX_4October2002_Reel2217.wav

Kenneth Seyffert [00:00:01] There have been widespread destruction of prairie dogs.

Kenneth Seyffert [00:00:07] Farmers and ranchers hate prairie dogs. They, they don't like them on their property. Their cattle, their livestock - they need that land for grazing, not for raising prairie dogs.

Kenneth Seyffert [00:00:29] Development, housing development. There have been some wonderful prairie dogs on the western fringes of Amarillo that attracted ferruginous hawks, rough-legged hawks, falcons, golden eagles, bald eagles (in winter). Wonderful feeding grounds for raptors. And Amarillo is steadily moving westward, and those towns have been destroyed. They no longer exist out there. And this is, this is happening all over the Panhandle with prairie dogs.

Kenneth Seyffert [00:01:15] Of course, you know there's the big controversy going on now, right, about the prairie dogs south of Lubbock. The groundwater has, or their drinking water, has become contaminated. And they've, someone, made the statement, "Well, that's because the prairie dogs, there, there's a huge prairie dog town down there, and the prairie dog waste, prairie dogs', have percolated into the.groundwater system" - which has not been proved. It's a, it's an assumption. So they're battling over that right now because the, I believe, the city or the county wants to transport the 10 or 15,000 prairie dogs and put them someplace else, or destroy them altogether if they can.