Regarding the Fish & Wildlife Service:

"If [the Fish and Wildlife Service is] strapped for cash, nothing would do more good than protecting a species like the prairie dog," said Jay Tutchton, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. "There are probably 10 other species that would be saved, and you would avert the listing of 20 other species. If they were really concerned about efficiency, they would work on something that would make a difference."

"The Fish & Wildlife Service has asked for scant money from Congress," said Washington, D.C.-based Eric Glitzenstein, the lead attorney in the planned lawsuit against the moratorium [on listing new species]. "They have asked for an explicit cap to be placed on listing funds. The lack of resources was not only predictable, but inevitable."

About Grazing:

"The grazing of livestock will and must be subordinated to the natural values, including the bison and the predators, who will and must have first place in the ecosystem." - Bruce Babbit, former Secretary of the Interior under President Clinton

The Wonderful World of Politicians:

"Are you supposed to drink it, or shoot it?" - Governor Bill Ownens upon recieving a bottle of prairie dog blush wine after signing a bill restricting the movement of prairie dogs across county lines.

"We have been trying to get rid of prairie dogs in our state (South Dakota) for over 100 years and have yet to get the job done. It is estimated that there are more prairie dogs in Jones County, where I grew up, than there are people. Who is the real endangered species?" - Congressman John Thune

Prairie Dogs

"Prairie dog habitat is the most rapidly decreasing habitat we have," says Katie Kinney, a Colorado Division of Wildlife area manager in Loveland.

"They are not worth a damn. They have no purpose whatsoever that I can see." says James Heath, who headed the agriculture department of Lamar Community College for 35 years.

(In response to a question: Why save Prairie Dogs?) "Why save anything? How would you like a world with nothing but ranchers and cows?" responds biologist Del Monte.

Statistics Related to Prairie Dogs:

• In the last few years, 25 percent of prairie dog habitat in the Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins area has been wiped out.

US Fish & Wildlife Service Report

Statistics Related to Grazing:

• Cattle grazing and grain production for cattle consumes 860 million acres, or 41%, of the US (acreage in US totals 2.1 billion acres). An additional 60 million acres is used to grow grain for feeding livestock.
• Total consumptive water use attributable to feed for livestock: 18%
• Portion of common household water quality problems due to animal waste: 16%
• Red Meat causes 3.4 times as many greenhouse gases, 17.5 times as much common water pollution, 4.5 times as much toxic water pollution, and uses 4.9 times as much water & 20 times as much land as a nutritionally equivalent amount of grain to produce.

from “The Consumer’s Guide to Effective Environmental Choices,” by Michael Browner, PhD & Warren Leon, PhD & the Union of Concerned Scientists, 1999.

• To produce a single pound of meat takes an average of 2,500 gallons of water—as much as a typical family uses for all its combined household purposes in a month.

from “A Diet for a New America,” by John Robbins