Once ranged over a large area across the Great Plains/Rocky Mountain states and 1 Canadian province and found on black-tailed prairie dog colonies across the Great Plains from southern Canada to northern Mexico, and on white-tailed and Gunnison's prairie dog colonies across the intermountain west. By 1986 they were completely gone from the wild. The black footed ferret have been successfully reintroduced to 15 locations in their former range in the states of Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Chihuahua, Mexico. There are approximately 50 ferrets exhibited in zoos across North America. link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_do_black_footed_ferrets_live As of March 5, 2012, Frederick, Colorado, a small town of 9,000 people, is requiring private property owners remove prairie dogs from their land. Any property owners who fail to comply within 30 days of the official notice could face $1,000 in fines. The ordinance is modeled on one passed in 2009 in the neighboring town of Firestone. “The prairie-dog issue is about as common in Colorado as snowstorms,” Firestone Mayor Chad Auer said. “It’s got to be dealt with all the time.” Extermination company Rocky Mountain Wildlife Services will poison two of the town’s largest prairie-dog colonies, a service that will cost taxpayers $20,000. Public Works director Tony Huerta believes hiring the exterminator was necessary. “We’re looking at eradication,” Huerta said. “It’d be nice to say we’re going to relocate them, but then you have to find someone who wants to receive them. This is also very difficult.” As part of the Frederick contract, if prairie dogs reappear on the town-owned land within two weeks of the extermination, Rocky Mountain Wildlife Service will treat the area again at 60 cents per burrow. “This is a new approach for us,” Huerta added. “But I feel pretty confident.” - See more at: http://www.emagazine.com/daily-news/poisoning-prairie-dogs#sthash.bLQadb86.dpuf Prairie dogs may be a nuisance....but could be kept under control if their predators were not on the cusp of extinction.... Poisons that kill prairie dogs is detrimental to the black footed ferrets as the prairie dog is the black footed ferrets primary prey. They eat poisoned prairie dogs or live in their burrows and die as a result from the poison. Live stock grazing on the land is also a reason for this extinction progression as well as over developing the land. Human error on ways to handle prairie dogs inadvertently made them stronger and over populating them when the predator that eats them is gone. Same goes for so many predator's prey. We believe that more should be done to save these endangered species from extinction. Extinction is forever and should not be an option where our wildlife is at stake. If it is preventable we should prevent the extinction, or it seems to be intentional with many species being thrown into extinction cycle. (as the case with many predators....) predators are vital to the balance of nature. Humans have over developed their boundaries into another species world. When is that going to stop? We hope you will take our petition on behalf of the black footed ferrets seriously and do whatever you can to restore them to the wild. thank you.

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