Image: Wikimedia Commons
Advocates are calling for a ban on cyanide bombs used by the federal government to kill wildlife in at least 14 U.S. states.
The devices, which are called M-44s and contain deadly sodium cyanide, are used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill predators like coyotes, wild dogs, and foxes that prey on domestic livestock. But sometimes the bombs miss their intended target and injure people and their pets instead.
In 2017, a boy in Idaho was walking his pet Labrador near his home when they came across one of the traps. When he touched it, the device went off, covering him in a toxic orange powder. Luckily he wasn’t seriously injured, but his dog died within minutes.
Environmental groups are asking the federal government to ban the use of the traps, which they say unintentionally killed more than 200 feral and domestic dogs between 2010 and 2016.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
The cyanide bombs are particularly dangerous because they seem harmless — they look like water sprinklers buried in the ground. When an animal tugs on the device, it releases sodium cyanide, which turns lethal when it combines with moisture in the animal’s mouth, according to a USDA fact sheet.
Estimates from The Humane Society of the United States, which have been confirmed by Politifact, put Texas as the top of the list of offenders, with 4,865 animals killed in 2016.
Despite regulations restricting the use of M-44 devices to private property, the Humane Society claims they are being placed in public areas like the one where the boy’s dog was killed in Idaho. Officials in Idaho placed a temporary ban following the incident, but other states have yet to follow suit.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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