Trump Endangers Wild Animals by Authorising Lethal Cyanide Bombs Across Millions of Acres of Public Land

The Trump administration has quietly cleared the way for lethal cyanide devices to return to hundreds of millions of acres of American public land, reviving a practice that has killed endangered wildlife, family pets, and nearly killed a child.

In April 2026, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA's Wildlife Services division signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) stripping out the explicit prohibition on M-44 sodium cyanide ejectors that had stood since 2023. The change went unnoticed until investigative outlet Public Domain obtained and published the internal document on 6 May 2026, triggering immediate alarm from wildlife advocates, conservation organisations, and public safety groups nationwide.

A Weapon That Cannot Tell the Difference

The M-44 is a spring-loaded device staked into the ground and baited with a scented attractant to lure canids, primarily coyotes and foxes. When an animal or person pulls at the bait, it fires a sodium cyanide pellet directly into the mouth. The cyanide mixes with saliva to produce hydrogen cyanide gas, which absorbs almost instantly through the lungs, triggering convulsions, paralysis, and death. The EPA classifies it as a Category 1 toxicant, its highest level of toxicity, and it cannot distinguish between a coyote, a protected endangered species, a family dog, or a child.

The device's notoriety peaked on 16 March 2017, when 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield triggered one on a hill behind his home in Pocatello, Idaho, mistaking it for a sprinkler head. His Labrador retriever, Kasey, died at the scene. Canyon survived, believed spared only by wind direction. The Mansfield family sued the federal government, and in August 2020, USDA Wildlife Services formally admitted negligence, settling for $38,500 (approximately £29,600).

At a July 2022 congressional hearing on Canyon's Law, legislation introduced to ban M-44s on all federal public lands, Canyon's father, Dr Mark Mansfield, testified: 'My son will always carry with him the deep pain of losing his best friend far too early, and the distress of having to watch his loyal pet cry out in agony, experience seizures, and die. I'm powerless to change what happened to my son, but Congress can ensure that it does not happen to others.'

Predator Defense, the advocacy group that first obtained the April 2026 memo, has documented over 50 family dogs killed by M-44s since 1990, at least 42 human accidental triggerings since 1984, and at least one contributing death, a Utah man poisoned in 2003 who died in 2018 with cyanide exposure listed on his death certificate.

The Memo That Dismantled a Hard-Won Prohibition

The 2023 BLM ban had prohibited Wildlife Services from deploying M-44s across all 245 million acres of BLM-managed land. The April 2026 MOU, signed on 15 April and effective until 2031, removes that prohibition entirely. In its place, it directs Wildlife Services to notify local BLM offices before using 'restricted-use pesticides such as ... M-44s that deliver sodium cyanide', establishing a procedural pathway for deployment, not a bar against it.

BLM spokesperson Richard Packer, in a statement to E&E News, described the document as identifying restricted-use pesticides 'as tools that may be considered under existing law and environmental review,' with proposals evaluated 'case-by-case.' Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense, rejected that framing outright. 'These devices are indiscriminate killers and cannot be used safely,' he told *Public Domain*. 'We are going to fight this tooth and nail.'

The full scope of the reversal sharpened weeks later, when language accompanying the FY2027 USDA House appropriations bill directed the agency to 'fully integrate' the M-44 into its wildlife damage management strategy. Kitty Block and Sara Amundson of Humane World for Animals wrote on 15 May 2026: 'Between this appropriations language and the agency memo, the M-44 appears to be on its way back to routine use.'

Endangered Species, Industry Interests, and What Comes Next

The harm M-44s inflict is not limited to pets and people. Wildlife Services' own data shows the programme killed 7,691 animals using M-44s in 2020, with over 200 deaths categorised as unintentional, including a black bear and dozens of foxes. The devices have also killed grizzly bears, grey wolves, and California condors, all protected under the Endangered Species Act. In December 2021, following a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, the EPA banned M-44 deployment in areas where at-risk species are known to live, a ruling that implicitly confirmed the devices cannot be deployed with sufficient precision to avoid protected wildlife.

Proponents of M-44 use point to real economic stakes. The American Sheep Industry Association has cited livestock death losses of $232 million (approximately £189 million) annually, and industry representatives have described the M-44 as filling a practical gap when terrain limits other methods. The Interior Department maintains that the new MOU 'does not itself authorise or expand use of M-44s' and that proposals will be weighed against public safety and ecological concerns. Critics counter that the practical effect is plain: where a categorical ban once existed, bureaucratic case-by-case review now takes its place.

States including Oregon, California, Idaho, Colorado, and Washington have imposed their own bans. The National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service prohibit the devices on the lands they manage. Canyon's Law, reintroduced in 2025 with Senate co-sponsors including Bernie Sanders, Ron Wyden, and Sheldon Whitehouse, has yet to receive a vote.

The family from Pocatello, Idaho, whose boy nearly died on a public hillside nearly a decade ago, still waits for a law that bears his name.