Back to the BYU Cougars Newsfeed

Utah residents ask Supreme Court to hear prairie dog case

Salt Lake City • Southern Utah residents who say federal safeguards for the Utah prairie dog prevent them from doing what they want with their property are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.

Attorneys for residents in Cedar City say in a Tuesday court filing that a March decision by an appeals court to strip Utah state officials of control of the burrowing critters amounts to “untrammeled federal intrusion.”

A state plan that went into place after a lower court judge in 2014 sided with the residents expanded where wildlife officials could remove prairie dogs and gave residents the option to seek permission to kill nuance prairie dogs.