Groups, US reach settlement on predator-killing poisons

U.S. officials have agreed to complete a study on how two predator-killing poisons could be affecting federally protected species as part of the settlement of a lawsuit filed by environmental and animal-welfare groups. The 10-page agreement filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Montana requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to complete consultations with the Environmental Protection Agency by the end of 2021 on the two poisons used by federal workers on rural Western lands to protect livestock. The Center for Biological Diversity and the other groups in the lawsuit filed last year in Montana say Fish and Wildlife is violating the Endangered Species Act by not analyzing with the EPA how sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 could harm federally protected species including grizzly bears and Canada lynx. The groups say the federal agencies in 2011 started but never finished the analysis. One kind of device is called an M-44, referred to by those who would like it banned as a “cyanide bomb.” It’s embedded into in the ground and looks like a lawn sprinkler but sprays cyanide when triggered by animals attracted by bait smeared on the devices. A 14-year-old Idaho boy was injured in 2017 when he encountered one with his dog on federally-owned land near his house on the outskirts of the small city of Pocatello. His Labrador retriever dog died. The Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, The Humane Society of the United States and The Fund for Animals in the lawsuit seek to have the poisons banned...more