Petition Seeks to Halt EPA's Use of Deadly Predator Poison

Five animal-protection organizations submitted a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency to cancel its registration for sodium fluoroacetate, a pesticide commonly known as Compound 1080. Currently the pesticide is permitted for use in “livestock protection collars” — one of the devices that agents of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program use to kill thousands of coyotes each year. The Animal Legal Defense Fund, Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, Predator Defense and Project Coyote are requesting that the EPA suspend and ultimately cancel the registration for Compound 1080 due to its violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). According to the petition, because coyotes have never been declared a pest or found to be “injurious to health or the environment,” as defined under FIFRA, pesticides (including Compound 1080) cannot legally be used to kill the animals. “Compound 1080 is dangerous, outdated and completely unnecessary when it comes to predator control,” said Tara Zuardo, a wildlife attorney with the Animal Welfare Institute. “Its use simply has no place within the law and our environment.”...more