The Trump administration is lifting a ban on the use of \u201ccyanide bombs\u201d on public lands, reversing course over the objections of environmentalists and animal-rights activists.<\/p>\n
The Bureau of Land Management will once again allow the use of the devices, which are spring-loaded traps intended to kill coyotes, foxes and other animals that prey on livestock, according to an internal April memorandum reviewed by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
The Biden administration had banned the devices in 2023, saying they were too dangerous to people and wildlife. Public Domain, a Substack newsletter focused on public lands, first reported<\/a> on the internal April memo.<\/p>\n Cyanide bombs, also known as M-44 devices, spray a lethal dose of sodium cyanide, a highly toxic pesticide, when triggered by a biting animal. They are meant to kill predators that threaten cattle, sheep, goats and other livestock on farms and ranches across the West.<\/p>\n But the devices can also kill or injure people, pets and endangered species. In one 2017 incident that gained national notoriety, the 14-year-old Canyon Mansfield and his dog were sprayed by a cyanide bomb near their Idaho home. The dog, Kasey, collapsed and died. Canyon was rushed to a hospital, where he was treated for temporary blindness.<\/p>\n Alyse Sharpe, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, said in an email that the memo classified M-44s \u201cas tools that may be considered under existing law and environmental review.\u201d<\/p>\n The memo \u201cdoes not itself authorize or expand use of M\u201144s,\u201d she added. \u201cB.L.M. will continue to evaluate proposals case\u2011by\u2011case and may prohibit or restrict such tools where warranted to protect public safety, pets, wildlife and designated lands.\u201d<\/p>\n The B.L.M. oversees roughly 245 million acres of public lands. Environmentalists and animal-rights activists sharply criticized the move.<\/p>\n \u201cThis dangerous reversal will result in so many indiscriminate killings of pets, endangered wildlife and even people,\u201d said Collette Adkins, who leads the carnivore conservation program at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.<\/p>\n \u201cThese devices are just as easily triggered by an endangered wolf as a targeted coyote,\u201d Ms. Adkins said. \u201cThey just should not be used.\u201d<\/p>\n Updated\u00a0<\/p>\n May 8, 2026, 1:14 p.m. ET<\/p>\n Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, praised the move, saying it would help the state\u2019s sheep industry, a lucrative source of wool and lamb.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Wyoming alone, predator losses amount to nearly half of all sheep and lamb deaths,\u201d Mr. Barrasso said in a statement. \u201cRolling back this harmful Biden-era regulation is an important step to ensure ranchers have access to safe and effective predation tools.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives for trade associations that represent farmers and ranchers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Ethan Lane, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association, has previously called M-44s an \u201cimportant tool\u201d<\/a> to protect cattle. And the American Sheep Industry Association has estimated that coyotes and other predators kill more than $232 million worth of livestock every year.<\/p>\n Wildlife Services, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has relied on cyanide bombs for farming since the mid-1970s. So have state counterpart agencies in Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.<\/p>\n The devices are smeared with scented bait that causes predators to bite them. A capsule containing sodium cyanide is then ejected into the predator\u2019s mouth, killing it within one to five minutes.<\/p>\n