EPA reauthorizes cyanide bombs to kill wild animals

Critics argue there are safer alternatives.

Despite strong opposition from environmentalists and others, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced this past week that it had reauthorized the use of spring-loaded poison devices known as “cyanide bombs” to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals that prey on livestock.

The devices, called M-44s, have been used continuously for more than four decades by Wildlife Services, a program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When a predator stumbles across one of these devices, a capsule containing sodium cyanide, a highly toxic pesticide, is ejected into its mouth.

In 2017, the WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit that asked the EPA to ban the use of sodium cyanide, generating a review of the program. The agency announced it would continue using M-44s on an interim basis, but would toughen restrictions based on its review.

Last year, the devices killed more than 6,500 animals across the country, according to the Department of Agriculture. More than 200 of the animals killed — including foxes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, swine and a black bear — were unintentional targets of the cyanide bombs.

The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, condemned the decision to reauthorize the devices, saying that they “inhumanely and indiscriminately” kill thousands of animals every year.

When the EPA proposed the renewed use of M-44s last year, the public was invited to submit comments through March. More than 20,000 letters were submitted in opposition to the proposal, “an overwhelming majority,” according to the EPA’s decision.

Many people argued there were safer alternatives available, that the M-44s killed nontargeted wildlife and that too many pets and people were accidentally exposed to the devices in residential areas.

Some groups wrote in favor of the devices, according to the EPA. These included the Wyoming Wool Growers Association, the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association and the Texas Wildlife Damage Management Association that emphasized how much money was lost when livestock was killed by wild animals.