Many clients have trusted Roe Ecological Services to perform a humane prairie dog removal (live-trap, euthanize, and donation of the prairie dogs to a raptor rehabilitation program) on their properties. Our clients have included federal, state, county, and local governments; private developers; and homeowners.

We always recommend non-lethal options first, such as active or passive relocation. But where relocation is not possible or practical, we can live-trap, humanely euthanize, and donate the prairie dogs to the prairie dogs to a raptor rehabilitation program such as the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program for food. In this way, the prairie dogs are still able to serve a portion of their important ecological purpose and are not wasted, and are treated humanely and with dignity and respect throughout the entire process. Please click HERE for a Letter of Recommendation from the Rocky Mountain Raptor Program.

The humane removal process consists of our wildlife biologists capturing the prairie dogs using aboveground cage-type live traps. This is the most efficient and humane capture method; we never “flush” (i.e., use gallons and gallons of soapy water to force the prairie dogs out of the burrow through threat of drowning) as it is considered inhumane. All non-target animals (such as cottontails or birds) that enter the traps are released unharmed onsite. Any trapped prairie dogs are then promptly humanely euthanized onsite with carbon dioxide (CO2) gas.

ROE biologists have developed a highly effective and humane euthanization system utilizing a gradual fill method (which causes the animal to lose consciousness before any discomfort or pain is felt), which is fully contained within each work vehicle. In addition to this euthanization technique, we make every effort to keep the animals as calm and stress-free as possible during the process. Our focus is on the humane treatment of the animals. The prairie dogs are always covered from the trap site to the vehicle to reduce their stress; we use a truck with a topper to further minimize stress; we have a biologist on site monitoring the traps for trapped animals, prairie dog stress level, etc. so we can efficiently, and humanely, retrieve the prairie dogs from the trap site and release non-target wildlife; etc.

More information about this service can be found HERE.