Friendly reminder – People aren’t the only animals who needlessly suffer in Oklahoma.
Last night, News 9 aired a report about the saga of some unfortunate and unlucky prairie dog families from Yukon who were drugged, tormented, and then forcibly relocated to Western Oklahoma by the Department of Wildlife Conservation.
As News 9 first reported in 2023, a colony of the critters had been squatting on some land near Sara Rd and Route 66 for a few years now and had built a pretty decent homestead and free bread side-hustle.
Sadly for them, the owners of the land want to clear it for some suburban Generica development. Instead of working with the prairie dogs to come up with a business plan to capitalize on their hole-digging success, they are being forced to move to the backward, uncivilized land known as Western Oklahoma.
Here are the details from News 9's chief prairie dog correspondent Deanne Stein:
The ultimate fate of a prairie dog colony in Yukon is now known.
These wild animals have been a hot topic for years as new developments kept forcing them to migrate to the northwest near Route 66. Last week, many people noticed cages at the location off of Sara Road, wondering what was happening.
Last week, the ODWC said it worked with a research team from the University of Louisiana to capture 38 prairie dogs using baited traps.
“While the prairie dogs were under anesthesia, they drew blood samples and took a small tissue sample for their data to look at genetics and disease resistance,” said Kurt Kuklinski, Wildlife Diversity and Research Supervisor for the ODWC.
Kuklinski said his team then took the animals in carriers to a former colony site in northwestern Oklahoma.