Trump under fire for deadly traps

– US President Donald Trump’s administration has reauthorised the use of controversial poison traps known as “cyanide bombs” to kill wild foxes, coyotes and feral dogs, despite overwhelming opposition from conservation groups.

The devices, known as M-44s, which are implanted in the ground and resemble lawn sprinklers, use a spring-loaded ejector to release sodium cyanide when an animal tugs on its baited capsule holder.

The government halted the use of the devices last year after one of them was responsible for injuring a boy and killing his dog in Idaho.

The family has also filed a case against the federal government.

The decision to reinstate their use was announced in the federal register earlier this week and met with outrage by environmental groups, that led a campaign to flood the Environmental Protection Agency with more than 20 000 letters.

“They’re incredibly dangerous to people, their pets and endangered wildlife. They’re just too risky to be used,” Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director for the Centre for Biological Diversity (CBD), said.

“The livestock industry wants it,” she said, adding that agriculture industry groups sent about 10 comments in favour of reauthorising M-44s to the EPA.

According to government data, M-44s killed 6 579 animals in 2018, including more than 200 “nontarget” animals such as opossums, raccoons, skunks and a bear.

“These numbers probably significantly underestimate the true death toll.

“This is because Wildlife Services is notorious for poor data collection and an entrenched ‘shoot, shovel, shut up’ mentality,” the CBD said in a statement.

The EPA did add certain new restrictions, including that devices may not be placed within 30m of a road.

It also said that warnings are still required to be placed within five metres of the device – though this would not reduce deaths of nontarget wildlife.

Adkins said her organisation would continue to lobby for state-level bans, the latest of which was passed by Oregon in May.