Gallup fights prairie dogs with Rodenator

Santa Fe rodent relocator says method not humane

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

7/2/2008 - 7/3/08

The city of Gallup is trying to stop prairie dogs from digging into a cemetery with a device that would likely draw protests in Santa Fe.

Gallup resident Nick Bubany told the Gallup Independent that prairie dogs have overrun the Hillcrest Cemetery, which has graves dating from the early 1900s. By now, he told the paper, the older graves' pinewood coffins have rotted away, so the prairie dogs possibly are burrowing into the corpses of the deceased.

The city has been trying to fight the problem with a device called the Rodenator that pumps propane and oxygen into prairie-dog burrows, then detonates them.

The Rodenator's Midvale, Idaho, manufacturer claims the $1,990 device is safe, fast and humane because it kills burrowing rodents quickly.

Gallup's director of golf operations, Bob Weekes, who said the concussion kills the prairie dogs, told the Independent he believes the Rodenator has been effective.

The city's public works director, Stan Henderson, compares the prairie-dog burrows to Viet Cong tunnels during the Vietnam War that were difficult to eradicate. "I suspect (prairie dogs) build traps, and when they smell the gas, they start piling up dirt and wait for the boom," Henderson told the Independent.

Santa Fe's Fairview Cemetery, which has graves dating back to the 1800s, has a similar problem with prairie dogs. Erik Mason, president of the nonprofit that runs the 4-acre graveyard on Cerrillos Road, said he spent $10,000 last year to trap and remove prairie dogs, but they are still rampant.

"It cost $100 a dog to get them removed, and we're a volunteer association working with donated money," he said. "I can't afford $100 a dog."

Santa Fe has a city ordinance requiring prairie dogs to be "humanely relocated" from construction sites before work begins.

One of the city certified prairie-dog relocators, Paula Martin, said the Rodenator wouldn't fit that criteria. "It's not humane. They just burn up underground," she said. "They make videos of it for people who like to watch that kind of stuff. ... I have no words to describe it."

And the Rodenator can lead to other problems as well. Earlier this year, the use of one of the devices to get rid of gophers at a golf course near Calgary, Alberta, resulted in a grass fire that caused $200,000 in damages.

On the Web: Rodenator.com

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.