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Moyer weighed his options. He could lace oats with strychnine and scatter it next to the burrows, bring in rattlesnakes to infiltrate the colony or simply drive over the field with a bulldozer. He could also invite people to shoot the dogs from the hoods of their pickup trucks (a method that recently received consideration in one Oklahoma town). In addition, there were some innovative devices on the market, including a portable flamethrower that injects propane gas into the burrows and incinerates the animals alive. But Moyer wisely ruled out these options on the ground that none were sanctioned by city ordinances. He confesses, however, that he briefly considered bringing in the "suck truck."
The brainchild of Gay Balfour, a welder and barbecue caterer from Cortez, Colo., the suck truck is a fan-driven vacuum system designed to Hoover prairie dogs from their holes. The dogs shoot through Balfour's 27-ft. suction hose at about 40 m.p.h., along with any skunks, cottontail rabbits or box turtles that may also be lurking below. The animals' progress is halted by a wall of 5-in. foam rubber, off which they ricochet into the tank of a "honey dipper," a truck normally used to clean out sewage lines. In the past, Balfour has sold a portion of his harvest to an exotic-pets broker, who marketed the rodents in Japan, where they command up to $350 each from consumers who presumably have not heard of prairie dogs' enthusiasm for chewing on curtains, wallpaper, furniture, electrical cords and other pets. The name of Balfour's business is Dog-Gone, and he charges $1,000 a day.
Not only was this too expensive for Hutchinson, but the town had no takers for the dogs. So Moyer advised his boss, city manager Joe Palacioz, that the animals should be killed with poison gas. When word of the plan got out, the fur really began to fly. Within a week, city hall was hearing from prairie-dog advocates as far away as Hawaii. And even within town, sympathy was growing. The manager of a local radio station that carries Rush Limbaugh pronounced the animals "creatures of God" and said he did not want them treated cruelly. That sentiment was echoed by several members of the town council, which ordered officials to find an alternative.
To the rescue came George Williams, a consultant for the Kansas corrections department, who had heard about the problem and thought the rodents might make a nice addition to his family's 40-acre wildlife preserve outside Topeka that is known as Bobcat Hollow. Having found a host, the town contacted the Prairie Ecosystem Conservation Alliance, a group of volunteers in Colorado. Next month a PECA field team will begin flushing the burrows with water and Mellow Yellow liquid dish soap. The bubbles will drive the animals out of their holes, where they will be snatched up, towel-dried, given a saline eyewash and placed in cages lined with straw for their journey to Bobcat Hollow. Any dogs refusing to evacuate in this manner will be gassed.