US approves the killing of wild animals with cyanide bombs

The US government has issued the approval of continued use of cyanide bombs to kill pests and wild animals. Cyanide bomb, a deadly poison, is used to kill the wild animals like foxes and dogs. There are objections on the use of cyanide bombs as they are misused in recent times.

The procedure of this technique is to draw the attention of the animal with bait and then spray poison into its mouth. In 2017, a child was blinded due to cyanide bombs and three pet dogs were also killed in Idaho and Wyoming respectively. The family of the child sued the US government for $150000 in 2018. It had been reported that those animals which were not the threat to the farmers and their livestock were killed by the traps.

M-44 Cyanide Bombs are not available for everyone to buy. The farmers and ranch owners use the service of Wildlife Services, a part of the US Agriculture Department, to kill a large number of wild animals.

Four of the conservation and animal welfare groups filed a lawsuit against the use of cyanide bombs in 2018. The US Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to assess the use of this deadly poison. The Environmental Protection Agency said that they received letters of objection from 200000 people during the assessment period of 18-months. EPA, still, has decided that these bombs can be used with some restrictions. They made an argument that the cyanide bombs prevented livestock animals from wild animals and a ban could make the farmers lose huge money.

The environment and wildlife agencies reacted to the decision and they called it a ‘disappointing’ decision. Collette Adkins, the director of carnivore conservation at the Center for Biological Diversity, said, “Cyanide bombs cannot be used safely by anyone, anywhere.” He demanded the permanent nationwide ban on the use of cyanide bombs to protect pets, humans, and endangered wild animals.