Nationwide Ban Sought on Deadly M-44 Cyanide Bombs
M-44 cyanide devices cause agonizing deaths for thousands of animals every year, including family pets — so this morning the Center and partners petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to outlaw them.
The devices are used by federal programs like the USDA's Wildlife Services — as well as state agencies in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and Texas — to kill wolves, coyotes and other native carnivores for the sake of livestock by spraying sodium cyanide into animals' mouths. They also pose risks of accidental injury and death to people, dogs and endangered wildlife.
"Cyanide traps are indiscriminate killers that just can't be safely used," said the Center's Collette Adkins.
Read more in our press release and check out this visual storytelling piece on M-44s in The Revelator.