So apparently the government has decided to curb the coyote and wolf population by putting cyanide traps on government land. Be careful they’re killing dogs and injuring people. I don’t know about you but I’m not all that happy about these traps.
Where are you getting wolves from? I don’t see any mention of them in the article. They’re an endangered species, AFAIK, so it seems unlikely that they’re the target of these traps.
It definitely sucks that some people’s pets are killed by these things, but coyotes also kill a lot of pets. They also cost ranchers a lot of money in lost livestock. Less than 500 dogs have been killed by these things, and the vast majority of them were feral. How many dogs, cats, chickens, etc. would those 100,000 coyotes have killed if these traps weren’t used? I have no idea, but it seems likely that it would be a lot higher than the number killed by these traps - especially if you look specifically at the number of pets killed, which is comparatively minuscule.
It is concerning that a human was injured by one of these things, but the article just says, “He lived,” without giving any idea of how badly he was hurt by his exposure, how long he was hospitalized, how much treatment cost him, what the ongoing health effects were, etc. If the guy’s got emphysema now because of his exposure, we definitely need to take another look at how these things are used. If it was basically the equivalent of being pepper sprayed… meh.
Maybe it wasn’t in this article but one mentioned that the traps were specifically made for dog type animals because it is supposed to require the animal to bite and pull on the pipe which is behavior associated with k9s. The fact that it kills dogs makes it likely to kill wolves as well.
I saw that article a few days ago, what the family seemed most upset about is that they had no idea it was even there. And it’s not like these are leftover over landmines from the cold war. They were probably set fairly recently, since they’re baited. Would it have been that difficult to put a small flag on them to warn people to stay away from them and to let nearby homeowners know what’s back there?
Now, I understand they don’t want people to panic about ‘cyanide bombs’ or have people go looking for them, but ISTM, they should at least be aware of, say, ‘coyote bait stations’ near their house…in that general direction with a warning that they’re labeled, so keep your kids and pets away from them if you see one and call us if you see any dead animals so we can remove the carcass.
I read that story about the poor dog, and I have trouble believing that anyone would think having signage would be an effective way to keep pets and kids from injury. Look, the kid in question who picked it up was a teenager, so maybe warning signs would’ve helped him avoid getting as sick as he did, but do you know who has a lot less impulse control than a young teenager when it comes to picking up something interesting? A two to four-year-old. Who can’t read yet.
The fact that the sheriff’s office in investigating because they weren’t alerted to the presence - and therefore no homeowners were either, despite the fact that they were only supposed to be placed upon request and have warning signs - is terrifying because they’re in yards that didn’t request them and parents have no idea to even look out for them. This is just a massive tragedy waiting to happen.
Seems that the mine was about 300 yards from the kid’s swing set.
I wonder if they don’t announce them and don’t put proper signage up is to try and avoid protest of the people in the area.
The agency that ordered them stated that they’re only supposed to be put where they’re requested, usually by ranchers, which sounds like someone f’d up their work orders (either accidentally or due to laziness, the lack of the signs implying the latter) to me. Who knows how many more were put in the wrong places, though.
Many western ranchers follow the unwritten policy toward wolves; shoot’em, shovel’em, shut up. It’s often done with the knowledge of local-based government officials.