[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 109 (Wednesday, August 5, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H7182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PLIGHT OF PRAIRIE DOGS

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, this week the National Wildlife Federation 
of Vienna, Virginia has petitioned to have the Black Tail Prairie Dog 
listed as an endangered species in 10 western states.
  Understand, this was not your run-of-the-mill petition but a request 
for an emergency listing due to the loss of habitat. While supporters 
of the petition admit that the prairie dog population is not critically 
low, the logic seems to be that we should protect them now because some 
day they might be endangered.
  Let me tell my colleagues about the prairie dog. They are everywhere 
in the West. If they want habitat, come west, we specialize in habitat 
for prairie dogs. With all the growth we have had along the front range 
of Colorado, they are still in abundance.
  If we fly over the West, we see the ground plowed as if it were 
plowed by a steel plow. But it is not. It is by prairie dogs. If my 
colleagues are familiar with the West, they know that the prairie dog 
is no more endangered than the fly or the gopher.
  Maybe we should arrange a trade: We will protect the prairie dog if 
the East Coast agrees to protect the gopher and the terribly endangered 
house fly.
  By the way, prairie dogs, not dogs. They are rats.

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