https://www.yahoo.com/news/ida...anide-025850761.html

Summary: Feds have been planting cyanide booby traps to kill coyotes. Apparently not widely known to the public in areas where it is happening.

Seems that some dogs have been killed, and now a young boy was injured and sprayed in the face with cyanide.

This gubbermint has lost its fucking mind! Planting booby traps where the citizenry works, plays?

A miracle that the kid is not dead.

Read this morning, can't believe that 1) this idea is even in use, 2) how poorly managed and controlled it is. How many are out there uncontrolled? Does the USDA think coyotes can read warning signs?

quote:

Originally posted by Surefire:
Read this morning, can't believe that 1) this idea is even in use, 2) how poorly managed and controlled it is. How many are out there uncontrolled? Does the USDA think coyotes can read warning signs?

And this is not the first time such an incident has occurred, either! From the article a family dog was killed a couple years ago.

...dogs, humans...theyre just collateral damage to the eco-left.

First off these should not be out there at all. Heck I'd probably go kick it or mess with it to figure out what it was if I stumbled upon it. If there was some kind of argument that their use was a good idea (which I sure as hell can't think of), then there should be signs all over the property in large white/red/black lettering indicating that the area had deadly toxic chemicals present and to stay far away.

Besides the stupidity of these things, do they even work? How are they designed so that only coyotes interact with them? Are there signs in bird language, bear language, deer language, bunny language warning every other animal on the planet to stay away? What happens when another animal eats a cyanided dead animal? Does that one get poisoned too? Or maybe just severe liver damage?

I thought there was an international ban on use of land mines? Heck this is both a chemical weapon and a land mine, planted on our own soil by our own government. WTF?!?!?

Do you know what would happen to you and me if we did something like that?

I've seen these devices in southeastern New Mexico. They were plainly marked and were miles from any houses.

I recall being warned about them when pheasant hunting in SD. That was 30 years ago, and I believe the farmers/ranchers were putting them out.

Wait. You're not supposed to use cyanide traps for rodents because other animals might eat the dead rats and die, but you can set cyanide land mines????

That is just plain stupid and reckless. Who the heck ever thought this was a good idea is beyond me. Stupid Feds. Thanks for the heads up Elk

That's fucked up beyond belief. I hope heads roll over this incident and they ban such retarded practices.

Looked up some nformation:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/pub...on/fs_m44_device.pdf

quote:

Originally posted by cincinnatijim:
I've seen these devices in southeastern New Mexico. They were plainly marked and were miles from any houses.

Do not care! It is just plain wrong! there are other ways to control coyote population. And what about all the other animals that "investigate" them?

Special permits and bounties. There's plenty of folks out there who would be happy to zip some 'yotes for a little cash.

But I dunno, I guess a cyanide landmine makes a lot more sense.

What the eff?

My kids sure as heck cannot read those signs- and I know they'd both "see" what the thing was.

I wonder how long this has been in practice? The article mentions several years- hopefully the morons who thought this wise can be bludgeoned for it.

quote:

Originally posted by MooneyP226:I wonder how long this has been in practice? The article mentions several years- hopefully the morons who thought this wise can be bludgeoned for it.

You will be bludgeoning some very old people. I was first aware of them(or something similar) when Reagan was President.

These cyanide traps have been around since the 1960s in Okla. to help control the coyote population. Okla. tried putting a bounty on them(I made some money there), but not nearly enough were taken by hunters. There is open season(at least then)on coyotes. These traps did curtail the huge population of coyotes, and the rabbits, quail, pheasants,etc. returned. The farmers/ranchers were thrilled.

I have never heard of this.

Is this a topic in hunter education courses or disclosed when obtaining a hunting license in affect states/areas?

So, the government mined some wilderness areas.

Signs fall over. Then what?

If a citizen is not legally able to mine or spring gun the inside of his/her own locked home, how is it O.K. to spring mine an unbounded area open to everyone?

If killer cyanide is left unattended but marked for anyone to find it, how is that a good idea?

Why not use traps or organize a hunt?

I'm hoping there is more to the story. Quarantine of an area for disease control is rational but people would be notified. Apart from this thread, I would not have known about cyanide traps in the wilderness.

EDIT: Given what others have said about how long this has been used and how I have never heard of any human deaths or injuries, maybe it's safer than it seems.

GT-40DOC, I was writing when you posted, got a call and then posted. It seems the locals knew of it thoroughly.

The things have been around since the early '60s, this isn't "news". (the "less safe" versions even longer)

On Facebook Daniel Craig is doing something to raise awareness on mines used in war and reducing that threat. I never even in a million years thought that this was an issue in the United States.