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POCATELLO — The father of a teenage boy sprayed by a cyanide explosive last month is relieved to learn the U.S. Department of Agriculture has temporarily stopped using the devices in Idaho.
“I finally feel like they’re listening because nobody has been listening,” Mark Mansfield told EastIdahoNews.com. “In the same way, I also know it’s a temporary moratorium that we hope will be permanent.”
Western Watershed Project released a letter Monday afternoon from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services stating M-44 cyanide devices have been removed statewide.
“WS (Wildlife Services) has ceased all use of M-44 devices on all land ownerships in the State of Idaho. WS has also removed all M-44s currently deployed on all land ownerships in Idaho,” a portion of the letter states.
M-44s are spring-activated devices that release cyanide when they are activated through upward pressure or pulling. The US Department of Agriculture has used the devices for decades to control coyotes and other predators.
Mansfield’s 14-year-old son, Canyon, was sprayed in the face with an M-44 while on a walk March 16 with the family’s dog, Casey, on a hill behind their Pocatello home.
“I see this little pipe that looked like a sprinkler sticking out of the ground,” Canyon told EastIdahoNews.com the next day. “I go over and touch it. Then it makes a pop sound and it spews orange gas everywhere.”
The orange gas was cyanide and, within minutes, Casey was dead after being exposed to the chemical.
The USDA said this was the first unintentional discharge of an M-44 in Idaho since 2014.
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Controversial bomb that killed dog a common tool in Utah, West
A cyanide bomb that killed a family's pet Labrador and sent a teenager to the hospital earlier this month in Pocatello is a predator control device commonly used by the federal government to kill coyote in Utah and 15 other states around the country, mostly in the West.Authorities began investigating and Pocatello Mayor Brian Blad, along with Bannock County Sheriff Lorin Nielsen, called for the devices to be banned in Bannock County.
Mansfield created a White House petition calling on lawmakers to ban USDA Wildlife Services from using M-44 devices, cyanide and compound 1080 for predator control. As of Monday night, nearly 5,000 people had signed the petition.
“How many coyotes do we need to get with these things to where it’s worth one kid?” Mansfield said. “Eventually it will kill a child or a person unless they are banned everywhere.”
Mansfield understands that ranchers and farmers need services to control predators but he believes there are other options.
“I’m on the side of ranchers and farmers. They don’t want cyanide bombs being used to control predators. They want it to be precise and humane,” said Mansfield. “These things are too indiscriminate and too inhumane. Let’s bring Wildlife Services into this century.”
Mansfield says Canyon is doing well but still suffers from headaches nearly a month after the incident.
The USDA tells Western Watershed Project the organization will be notified 30 days prior to any new M-44s being placed in Idaho but the Mansfield family hopes the explosives are never used again.
“Thank God I have my kid,” Mansfield said. “We lost our dog. Let’s pray no one else loses a pet or a family member.”
