“Those rodents are responsible for many broken legs in horses and cattle...”
Myth.
From a Smithsonian excerpt http://www.catherinedold.com/fpdogs.htm:
Ranchers also fear prairie dog invasions because of the “broken leg” phenomenon.
But that always seems to have happened to someone else. “There has never been a documented case of that happening except in John Wayne movies,” says Sharps. “Those are old wives’ tales.” Sharps tells of posing the broken leg question at a conference in South Dakota. “I had a captive audience of a couple hundred ranchers.
I said, ‘If anyone knows of a cow or a horse that has broken a leg in a prairie dog town, please raise your hand.’ Nothing. Silence. It’s a myth. Everyone says, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that,’ but when it comes right down to it, they can’t come up with anything.”
Ummmm - Then I suggest you come to eastern WA -.....
The Smithsonian is hardly an unbiased source.
does euthanizing four horses due to broken legs from ground squirrels apply, or is this just prairie dogs?