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Efforts to ban 'cyanide bombs' live on five years after local boy injured, pet killed

By Shelbie Harris sharrs@journalnet.com Mar 21, 2022



In this 2017 file photo, Canyon Mansfield holds up the collar of his dog Kasey, who was killed by a “cyanide bomb” in March 2017 near the Mansfield family’s residence on Buckskin Road just outside of Pocatello. The blast seriously injured Canyon.

Local boy Canyon Mansfield five years ago watched his Labrador retriever convulse and die in front of him after the dog triggered an M-44 device, commonly known as a “cyanide bomb.”

Though a lethal dose of the poison didn’t make its way into Canyon’s system, the little bit that did manifested into unbearable headaches, moments where he couldn’t feel his arm and sleepless nights trying to mitigate the pain. Five years later and the fight to permanently outlaw the use of these devices in the United States wages on and numerous animal rights and advocacy groups commented on the battle in a joint press release issued March 16. ... The news release was distributed by Brooks Fahy, the executive director of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group, and included statements from officials with the Center for Biological Diversity, Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

M-44s are devices filled with sodium cyanide that are baited to attract coyotes and other wild animals deemed pests by Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. When triggered, the devices eject sodium cyanide into the mouth and face, up to five feet in the air. They indiscriminately kill thousands of animals inhumanely every year, including endangered species and family pets. The devices have injured several people and pose a grave danger to children.

On March 16, 2017, then 14-year-old Mansfield was walking his dog on a hill behind his Buckskin Road home near Pocatello when he encountered an M-44 and triggered it, thinking it was a sprinkler head. The device spewed toxic orange cyanide powder that injured Canyon and killed his dog in front of him. Since the accident, Canyon and his family have traveled the country sharing their story and urging bans on M-44s.

“Working side by side with the Mansfield family since their tragedy, as well as with other M-44 victims for over 30 years, I have witnessed the pain and loss these indiscriminate devices inflict,” said Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group. “Since M-44s can never be used safely, they must be banned. This is not a partisan issue. It’s a public safety issue.”

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