prairie dogsOur cynical hearts are bleeding a little upon learning that activists failed so miserably in their attempts to protect prairie dogs at the Castle Rock mall development site, that state agents actually raided a garage where 100 critters were illegally held and have little alternative but to euthanize the rodents.

Developers gave in to the animal activists’ whims to relocate the furry rodents and allowed environmentalists from New Mexico, Bold Visions Conservation, to conduct the move, only it never happened.

Ironically, and with a twist of tragedy, these New Mexico activists didn’t have the permits they needed to actually transport the rodents out of state, nor did they have permits to store the animals in a volunteer’s garage in Colorado. So, that plan’s been scrapped.

The twist of tragedy is that Colorado wildlife officials say they have little recourse but to relocate the prairie dogs in Colorado — where no one wants the little buggers destroying their fields or maiming livestock — or kill the rodents and feed them to more deserving endangered creatures*, the black-footed ferrets.

The irony is that officials are simply navigating the labyrinth of regulations hoisted upon them by animal and environmental activists.

The same folks who insist on permits if someone so much as looks at a critter ignored rules against more serious actions, like hoarding animals in a garage, and treating wild animals like a pet.

*Also qualifies as irony.