FDA rules foster underground resistance

Some people think of prairie dogs as affectionate pets.

To the government, however, the animals are a potential source of disease. As a result, anyone who captures, transports, sells, or barters prairie dogs now must receive written permission from the Food and Drug Administration.

But people seeking prairie dogs as pets need not apply: The FDA won't consider it.

What most worries federal authorities is monkeypox, a fearsome disease that lurks in African rain forests and hitchhiked to the Western Hemisphere via giant rats. In 2003, the disease sickened 72 people in six states, leading to fevers, aches, exhaustion, and raised bumps that resembled chickenpox.

Prairie dogs -- which are small rodents -- excavate expansive burrows known as dog towns, and shear nearby grass and stand on their haunches for better viewing. Dog towns can span up to 60 acres. The animals are hunted by golden eagles, coyotes, foxes, burrowing owls, and prairie rattlers.

"It's a rough life for a prairie dog," said Bob Mathews, spokesman for Prairie Dog State Park in Kansas.

People who take in prairie dogs as pets have not been deterred by the federal spotlight. They have simply picked up a skill from the animals: They've moved underground. Owners use websites to trade information about their pets, cryptically referring to each other so they can't be easily identified.

Dianne James, who shares her Indiana home with 11 prairie dogs, does not consider them to be pets. "I am the pet," she said, describing how the so-called "James Gang" holds sway over her. James said that when she returns home they raise their arms and spring so high they sometimes do aerial somersaults. "They're a riot," she said. James has featured images of the prairie dogs on her website, prairiedoglover.com .

Two of the 122 requests the FDA received last year to handle prairie dogs were from James, who said she conducts "rescues" of the animals. She thinks the federal restrictions on them are unfair.

The FDA hasn't banned cattle due to mad cow disease fears, James said, "so why do they ban prairie dogs? There were rabbits that got monkeypox and they didn't get banned. That is the part of it that is not just."

Diedtra Henderson can be reached at dhenderson@globe.com.