Don't suppose the journalist could add another sentence on what happens to the prairie dogs after they're caught.
Here's what one creative Alberta community did when they had a few too many gophers/prairie dogs:
http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/gopher.htm The Torrington Gopher Hole Museum has several dozen of the critters - all stuffed and set up in dioramas - there's a Royal Canadian Mounted Gopher, Reverend Gopher, gophersmith, etc.
And the ones that are missed by the taxidermy brigade - well, our teenager seems to be the only person in his class at school that's ever used them as targets (yet another of the problems with schools today LOL), but he's invited back year after year to a couple of area ranches to practice with his .22 and make a bit of a dent in the population of the varmints.