The Fight Against Cyanide Bombs: Over 60 Groups Unite To Protect Wildlife In U.S. National Forests

The Center for Biological Diversity, Predator Defense, and numerous other conservation organizations petitioned the U.S. Forest Service to ban the use of M-44 devices, often referred to as “cyanide bombs,” in national forests.

These cruel wildlife-killing devices are spring-loaded ejectors armed with cyanide powder that have injured people and inhumanely killed thousands of animals every year in the U.S. alone.

“M-44s are indiscriminate devices that can never be used safely,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group. “I’ve worked with victims of M-44s for over 30 years and know firsthand that the federal government has no justification for attempting to ‘manage’ native predators with a device that kills and poisons endangered species, wildlife, dogs and humans — especially on our shared public forest lands.”

Despite public opposition, the U.S. Forest Service has continued to authorize use of these dangerous devices by Wildlife Services, the animal-killing program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, M-44s have not been actually placed on national forest lands in the past several years, according to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. If the U.S. Forest Service put the requested regulatory ban in place, the agency could not resume M-44 authorizations without involvement from the public.

The Bureau of Land Management recently issued a ban prohibiting the use of M-44s by Wildlife Services on all BLM-managed lands. M-44s are not used on lands administered by the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, or the Bureau of Reclamation. The petition asks the Forest Service to similarly ban the use of the devices on the federal lands it manages.

Wildlife Services killed 6,543 animals using M-44 cyanide bombs in 2023. Of these deaths, 156 were unintentional. The program reported using M-44s last year in 10 states: Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming. State agencies in South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico and Texas are also authorized to use M-44s.

The bombs continue to be used, even after a well-known tragedy in 2017 in Pocatello, Idaho. Canyon Mansfield was 14 years old when he inadvertently triggered an M-44 device placed on BLM land behind his home; the M-44 cyanide bomb killed his dog and injured him. He is believed to have been spared from death because of the direction of the wind.

“The Forest Service needs to step up with a ban so that we all can step safely in our national forests,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center. “I just can’t understand why the Forest Service won’t follow the lead of other land-management agencies that rightly recognized how dangerous cyanide bombs are to wildlife, people, and their pets. Forest Service officials need to take a stand against these deadly devices.”

Last week’s administrative rulemaking petition supports ongoing efforts to pass federal legislation banning cyanide bombs, with two bills introduced in Congress this session.