Boy, you've just got to love Boulder.
Boulder Prairie Dog Trapping Spurs Protests
Trapped Animals To Be Fed To Ferrets
POSTED: 1:31 p.m. MDT October 9, 2003
BOULDER, Colo. -- A plan to feed 21 captured prairie dogs to ferrets has led to protests by animal-rights activists and demands for an investigation.
The Dog Gone prairie dog relocation firm trapped the animals at a Boulder office park earlier this week.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife ticketed Dave Crawford, executive director of Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, with a misdemeanor count of interfering with a trapping operation after he allegedly confronted the firm's owner.
Gay Balfour, owner of Dog Gone, said Crawford yelled obscenities, spit at workers and didn't respond when he was asked to leave. Crawford said he reacted after Dog Gone workers turned a hose on him and tried to stop him from taking pictures of the trapping operation.
"Words were exchanged, but they started with obscenities first," Crawford said Wednesday. "These people have no right to lay a finger on Colorado's wildlife like this."
Division of Wildlife officials have concluded Dog Gone did not violate state rules.
Crawford and other animal advocates say some of the animals were maimed in the trapping operation. They have asked city officials to pursue animal cruelty charges against Balfour.
Acting City Attorney Jerry Gordon said it appears unlikely Balfour violated city codes.
Balfour said the prairie dogs he captures would otherwise probably be poisoned.
"Is it absolutely perfect? No. But it's the best I can do," Balfour said. "If there was any good place to release back into the wild, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Here's some info released today on the black-footed ferret recovery here. Ferrets released
Oak
Boulder Prairie Dog Trapping Spurs Protests
Trapped Animals To Be Fed To Ferrets
POSTED: 1:31 p.m. MDT October 9, 2003
BOULDER, Colo. -- A plan to feed 21 captured prairie dogs to ferrets has led to protests by animal-rights activists and demands for an investigation.
The Dog Gone prairie dog relocation firm trapped the animals at a Boulder office park earlier this week.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife ticketed Dave Crawford, executive director of Rocky Mountain Animal Defense, with a misdemeanor count of interfering with a trapping operation after he allegedly confronted the firm's owner.
Gay Balfour, owner of Dog Gone, said Crawford yelled obscenities, spit at workers and didn't respond when he was asked to leave. Crawford said he reacted after Dog Gone workers turned a hose on him and tried to stop him from taking pictures of the trapping operation.
"Words were exchanged, but they started with obscenities first," Crawford said Wednesday. "These people have no right to lay a finger on Colorado's wildlife like this."
Division of Wildlife officials have concluded Dog Gone did not violate state rules.
Crawford and other animal advocates say some of the animals were maimed in the trapping operation. They have asked city officials to pursue animal cruelty charges against Balfour.
Acting City Attorney Jerry Gordon said it appears unlikely Balfour violated city codes.
Balfour said the prairie dogs he captures would otherwise probably be poisoned.
"Is it absolutely perfect? No. But it's the best I can do," Balfour said. "If there was any good place to release back into the wild, I'd do it in a heartbeat."
Here's some info released today on the black-footed ferret recovery here. Ferrets released
Oak