I was once very nearly an Olympic biathlete (skiing, shooting) and one of the fellows with whom I trained had the following summer job description: Ride ATV around, shoot prairie dogs.
Funny thing, we talked about it later and it really bothered him.
Huge difference between rats & prairie dogs - rats are dangerous pets that spread disease, even bite humans, and the world has far too many of them......Prairie dogs are cute little fella’s that generally don’t hurt anyone, but do cause holes in the prairie’s that can be a problem for big 4-legged beasts......