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The USDA will stop using sodium cyanide "bombs" in Idaho (at least temporarily) following an incident that put a 14-year-old in the hospital and killed his dog:
About a month after an anti-predator device spit sodium cyanide in the face of an unsuspecting boy and killed his dog, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it is ending its use of the M-44 mechanisms in Idaho indefinitely.
"We take seriously the incident in Idaho," Jason Suckow, western regional director of the USDA's Wildlife Services agency, told conservation groups in a letter Monday. "We immediately responded by removing all M-44s from the area, initiating an inquiry into the incident, and launching a review of current [Wildlife Services] operating procedures."
Suckow noted the agency has "removed all M-44s currently deployed on all land ownerships in Idaho" and has refrained from planting new ones.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Scrutinizer on Sunday April 16 2017, @06:23PM
Taking that statement at full face value still leaves unresolved the matter of federal government agents placing deadly booby-traps in all States other than Idaho. For example, it is claimed that the exact same M-44 "bombs" are, and will continue to be, used in Wyoming. [hcn.org]
As for the M-44's use in general, I can see how such devices can be quite useful for keeping varmint predator populations suppressed. The particular manner in which they were used in this case, though, was criminally negligent. Local law enforcement in Idaho was reportedly unaware of the devices, according to early news reports [ktla.com], and the booby-trap was not marked in any way. Hidden "bombs" scattered around the US countryside harkens back to the Japanese balloon bombs of World War 2 [npr.org], something I was cautioned repeatedly about as a kid more than a generation after the war ended. Yet here we have the same "war crimes" committed by US government agents, paid for with tax dollars. Just another part of the "admission fee" for civilization, I guess?