What kind of government brings back cyanide bombs onto public land after years of documented deaths and outrage?
The devices are called M-44s. They’re baited with scented lures designed to attract coyotes and other animals. But they don’t know the difference between wildlife, pets, or children.
One tug releases sodium cyanide into the victim’s face. Moisture turns it into deadly hydrogen cyanide gas. The result is often convulsions, paralysis, and a horrifying death.
These are the same devices that killed a 14-year-old Idaho boy’s dog in front of him in 2017 and sent him to the hospital.
The Biden administration banned them from Bureau of Land Management lands in 2023. But in 2026, Trump’s agencies quietly reversed course, reopening roughly 245 million acres of public land to their use. Then House Republicans pushed language to fully restore the program through the USDA.
Wildlife Services’ own records show thousands of animals killed with M-44s in a single year, including accidental deaths of protected species and non-target animals. Family dogs, wolves, grizzlies, even condors have been caught in these traps.
This isn’t conservation. It’s poison hidden across public lands for the benefit of livestock interests.
Americans should not have to worry about cyanide devices near hiking trails, campsites, or places where children and pets roam.
They brought them back quietly because they knew the public would be horrified.
Someone broke into a Northern California falconry education and conservation center early Friday and intentionally released all of its birds, several of which are still missing and at risk, according to West Coast Falconry.
Staff at the falconry — located about 40 miles north of Sacramento in Marysville — found the premises vandalized and all 11 birds set free. The intruder or intruders destroyed equipment and merchandise, and released the birds by cutting gear from their legs and removing them from their enclosures, “leaving them to fend for themselves,” the organization said.
“These birds are not wild — they are trained and rely on human care,” West Coast Falconry said in a Facebook post. “Releasing them in this condition puts them at serious risk of injury or death.”
Four birds were still missing as of midday Sunday: Walter, a great horned owl; Cubbie, a peregrine falcon; Amadon, a barn owl; and Cora, a dark-morph red-tailed hawk who is blind in one eye.
The center said it was actively working to locate and recover the missing raptors, and asked for help from nearby residents to look out for birds who are “unusually comfortable around people.”
People should not approach the raptors, but instead should report any sightings to West Coast Falconry.
📸: Courtesy of West Coast Falconry
@hannahbsampson I was flying out of Dallas Love one time, couple came running in at boarding, they had gone to DFW. I know they were stressed. Barely made the flight.
The Trump administration is simultaneously trying to
1: Exempt offshore oil from protecting the whales.
2: Stop offshore wind in order to protect the whales.
Blocking local law enforcement from intelligence that would prevent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil raises the chances of a successful attack by terrorists.
A successful terrorist attack helps Trump justify his war, mass surveillance by his donors, and expanding ICE.
Pay attention.