WYOMING – A broad-based coalition of wildlife advocates and environmental groups have petitioned the USDA, APHIS, and Wildlife Services to immediately ban the use of cyanide bombs used in predator control by the federal government and to remove all known devices currently planted in Idaho.
A letter dated March 28, 2017, sent by Western Watersheds Project’s Erik Molvar, and cosigned by more than a dozen regional and national organizations including Project Coyote, Predator Defense, and Animal Legal Defense Fund, was addressed to western region director Jason Suckow.
“The recent hospitalization of a youth and killing of a family dog in Idaho who encountered one of these ground weapons near their home was one motivator for the creation of this petition,” the letter stated. “The petition specifically calls on the agencies to cease all use of M-44 explosive cyanide devices on all land ownerships in the State of Idaho, and immediately remove any and all M-44s currently deployed on all land ownerships in Idaho.”
A cyanide bomb also killed two dogs last month near Casper.
The petition also called cyanide bombs indiscriminant killers of more than 50,000 members of 150 non-targeted species since 2000.
“Cyanide bombs are indiscriminate killers that must be banned,” Andrea Santarsiere, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, is quoted as stating in the petition. “Any animal that might pull on the baited trigger is at risk, including endangered wildlife like Canada lynx and grizzlies, as well as people and pets. And in just the past few weeks these cruel devices have injured a child and killed an endangered wolf and several family dogs. Enough is enough.”
An agreement between the state of Idaho and Wildlife Services was made in November 2016 in an environmental assessment where WS made a commitment to discontinue the use of M-44s on public lands is either “not being followed by Wildlife Services personnel, or older M-44s are still planted on public lands and have not been removed,” the petition stated.
