Trump Administration Reauthorizes Use of ‘Cyanide Bombs’ to Kill Wild Animals

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, officially called M-44s, have been used continuously for more than four decades by Wildlife Services, a program within the United States 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.