1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The Trump administration has quietly reopened the door to cyanide bombs on your public lands. An internal April 2026 memo shows the Bureau of Land Management has effectively rolled back a ban on M-44 ejector devices spring-loaded traps that kill predators like coyotes, foxes, and feral dogs by shooting sodium cyanide into their mouths. Death comes within minutes. These devices are deployed across BLM parcels nationwide, often during denning season, when adults are raising young. When a parent animal is killed, the pups are left to starve. And what makes them especially dangerous they cannot tell the difference between a coyote and a wolf, between a fox and your dog, or between wildlife and a child. People, including kids, have been injured after accidentally triggering M-44s on public lands. Non-target animals (including protected species) are killed regularly. Thousands every year, written off as acceptable collateral damage in the name of predator control. Wildlife belongs to all of us. It’s held in the public trust. These are your lands, and the animals on them are a shared inheritance, not targets to be quietly poisoned while the administration hopes no one notices. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!