M44 predator-killing devices now banned in Idaho
By Erica Cirino, Safina Center Launchpad Fellow
Cascade red fox on San Juan Island, Washington State. Photo: Erica Cirino
Last week, Idaho wildlife managers banned the use of M44 “cyanide bombs,” food-coated spring-loaded devices that kill wild predator animals—and anyone else who touches them—with deadly cyanide gas. This gives the many coyotes, wolves and other wild predator animals who live in Idaho a small reprieve and prevents death and severe injury to pets and people, who also could encounter these widely dispersed and often unmarked killing devices.
The agreement also involves restrictions on killing wolves, banning use of wolf snares on public lands. With this, Idaho has become the most recent state to completely outlaw M44s across all lands, joining California, Washington and Oregon.
State and federal wildlife agents continue to deploy M44s to kill across 13 states, including Nevada, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia and West Virginia, and anywhere except on select public lands in Colorado and Wyoming—in the name of controlling so-called “nuisance” wildlife that interfere with human activities, most often ranching.
The move comes after conservation groups filed a lawsuit against Idaho’s branch of Wildlife Services, the U.S. government agency tasked to “improve the coexistence of people and wildlife”—which is something it believes it does by killing off wild animals, by the millions, every year. Experts have said they’re tired of the agency’s “rouge,” “aggressive” “cowboy culture.” The outcome was an agreement banning use of M44s and requiring an evaluation of the devices’ effects on wildlife, in addition to tightening restrictions on killing wolves—with any method—throughout the state.
“These devices are unsafe, indiscriminate killers and their use is not supported by science,” said Kelly Nokes. “And science also shows us that Wildlife Services has no reason to be killing ecologically important native predator animals—with any killing method—period.”
Scientists have clearly found that killing predator animals doesn’t do much to help prevent them from killing ranchers’ livestock, and in fact it can actually seriously backfire: Causing increased predation activity and more predator animals to be born. The latter situation happens naturally, most commonly in families of canines like coyotes and wolves, when young females begin to give birth earlier to a greater number of surviving babies. The numbers of these babies born sometimes more than make up for individuals killed by the hands of wildlife agents, sparking more killing.
In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available, Wildlife Services reported it killed 2.7 million animals, 1.5 million of which were native species. This includes 357 wolves, 361 black bears, one grizzly bear, 68,292 coyotes, 384 cougars, and 3,579 foxes of all species, killed with various methods, including M44s. According to Wildlife Services, M44s were responsible for the “unintentional” deaths of hundreds of non-targeted foxes as well as raccoons, skunks and a black bear.
The conservation groups and individuals who oppose these devices—which is to say, a majority of people—are holding the pressure on state and federal governments by writing letters and filing lawsuits. The rally against M44s has been mounting since the U.S. government began to entertain a nationwide ban on the devices last year. The EPA is now evaluating the devices’ effects, especially on endangered species, and now requires users across all states to better track the toxic devices and make them more visible. A final decision from the EPA is expected at the end of 2021—and that decision could reinforce these piecemeal state restrictions that opponents of M44s continue to push for.
M44s kill by inviting predator animals to bite the meat-flavored bait that coats a triggering device, which sprays cyanide gas into their mouths and causes a chemical reaction that stops an animal from being able to breathe. Sodium cyanide, the main active ingredient in M44s, is so toxic that the Department of Homeland Security considers it a potential terrorist weapon. So why does Wildlife Services still use these killing devices?
“Politics influence this agency from the top of its command,” said Paul Davidson, a wildlife biologist who has used dogs to scare bears away from people’s communities in Louisiana—instead of killing the bears, as has typically been done. “In their eyes, special interests—often agricultural interests—should take precedent over the lives of the wild animals we share the planet with."