WATCH: Video from the Castle Rock prairie dog removal

State wildlife agents and police officers seized about 100 prairie dogs from a Castle Rock woman’s garage Tuesday morning, weeks after they were trapped at a controversial shopping mall development site.

Wildlife officials said they were exploring options to relocate the rodents but said it was possible the prairie dogs would be killed or fed to endangered ferrets.

The animals had been trapped for relocation after arbitration by a New Mexico-based environmental firm, Bold Visions Conservation, and were being held in cages awaiting transfer. Two women offered the garage as a respite for the emigrants.

Authorities in New Mexico, however, never received an application for a relocation permit and the New Mexico ranch where the animals were slated to be placed backed out, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials.

“We just care about the prairie dogs,” said Malia Reeves, one of the two women who volunteered to watch over the animals.

Reeves filmed the early-morning seizure in a grainy video showing uniformed officers loading heavy cages onto trailers. Sobs can be heard in the background as the rodents are hauled away.

The prairie dogs were trapped in mid-March at the Promenade at Castle Rock construction site near Interstate 25 and Meadows Parkway, Reeves said. The development, which is near a large prairie dog colony, had been the subject of intense debate about expansion and preservation.

The seizure is the latest in the long saga for prairie dogs that CPW officials say has become so heated that officers have been threatened during operations to manage them.

“I’ve never heard of us taking (prairie dogs) out of the ground, them getting seized and then being exterminated,” said Trent Botkin, an independent contractor who captured the rodents and is a 12-year veteran of the field. “Once you take them back out, you don’t put them back in.”

The $177 million Promenade project, a joint venture of Greenwood Village-based Alberta Development Partners and Denver’s Forum Real Estate Group, is expected to yield a 1 million-square-foot mall where shops plan to open this year.

The construction drew criticism from residents, especially a faction that feared the destruction of prairie dogs on the 200-acre property. Prairie dog supporters started a Facebook page with thousands of followers, a crowdfunding site and a Change.com petition.

“This is personal for those of us who viscerally love this landscape and the animals who depend on it,” Linda Vannostrand, a prairie dog supporter, said at a Town Council meeting last month. “These animals and those that live interdependently with them will suffer. Council needs to put this ordinance to referendum.”

After the council meeting, developers and CPW officials began working with Bold Visions Conservation to plan the relocation of the rodents.

“We did let them trap the prairie dogs,” said Jennifer Churchill, a CPW spokeswoman. “We were going to allow the relocation. The habitat was sufficient.”

Wildlife officials in New Mexico said they never received an application to relocate prairie dogs.

Stephen Capra, executive director of Bold Visions Conservation, said CPW officials threatened to revoke operating licenses of those involved in the relocation. He said his organization suggested relocation spots in Colorado and was turned down repeatedly.

“Is that really the best use of an agency like this?” Capra said, adding that he was told the animals would be euthanized after being seized. “Let’s find a common-sense solution to this.”

Justin Olson, a CPW district wildlife manager, refuted Capra’s allegations. Olson said Capra’s group was told several times that the ranch in New Mexico and a lack of permits blocked the transfer.

The prairie dogs are healthy and have been moved to a CPW facility, where they are safe and secure, officials said.

According to Churchill, CPW is examining an “11th hour” relocation site and is exploring other options before, as a last resort, considering euthanization. They are also weighing feeding the prairie dogs to endangered black-footed ferrets.

Residents say about a dozen other prairie dogs trapped for relocation and held by a Castle Rock woman have not yet been seized by CPW. The rodents were trapped with permission from developers.

Messages left for the mall’s developers were not immediately returned.

Dr. Greg Florant, a biology professor at Colorado State University, said

laws allow prairie dogs to be killed or relocated when development begins but that he feels it’s best to try to save them. “It’s unfortunate usually for the prairie dogs because they were there first,” he said.

Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733 or jpaul@denverpost.com