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DeFazio Introduces Ban On M-44s, aka 'Cyanide Bombs'

Bannock County Sheriff's office

Oregon U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio has introduced a bill to ban the use of M-44s, or cyanide bombs, nationwide. That’s just as Governor Kate Brown is poised to sign a statewide ban here.

The devices are used by USDA Wildlife Services to kill coyotes. Brooks Fahy, Director of the wildlife advocacy group, Predator Defense has worked to ban M44s for 35 years. He’d been contacted by a Harrisburg woman. Her dog had come across one of the devices, which exploded with a cloud of cyanide gas.

Fahy: “And she watched her dog die right in front of her. And as her dog was dying, she was leaning over trying to smell whatever he had gotten into and then she also inhaled some of the sodium cyanide gas.”

The woman survived, but Fahy says one man has died from the poison, and it’s killed countless family pets.

DeFazio’s legislation would end the use of the devices on federal and private land. The Chemical Poisons Reduction Act is also known as Canyon’s Law.

“After the young boy from Pocatello, Idaho that was poisoned 2 years ago after watching his dog being poisoned,” says Fahy.

Copyright 2019 KLCC.

Rachael McDonald is KLCC’s host for All Things Considered on weekday afternoons. She also is the editor of the KLCC Extra, the daily digital newspaper. Rachael has a BA in English from the University of Oregon. She started out in public radio as a newsroom volunteer at KLCC in 2000.
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