Cattleman wants to save prairie dogs on his ranch

A cattleman who regards prairie dogs as an essential cog in the northwest Kansas ecosystem said Thursday he remains hopeful that Logan County will abandon plans to kill the rodents on his acreage with poison.

Haverfield's argument has to do not only with saving prairie dogs, but also with the federal plan to reintroduce the endangered black-footed ferret to the the area Prairie dogs are essential to the ferrets' diet. And Haverfield has 6,000 acres of land that he says the animals (both) are welcome too..and a neighboring plot of 2,000 acres owned by another man is also open to the animals. ''We don't want to kill our prairie dogs,'' Haverfield said. ''We don't mind if the neighbors do, but we believe they're part of our ecosystem. We believe they're necessary for healthy grasslands.'' I hope he's successful. The animals really are a part of the ecosystem and killing them (on land that welcomes them) is simply wrong.