Cyanide Landmines
January 23, 2008 6:53 AM   Subscribe

 
Human ingenuity.
posted by milarepa at 6:57 AM on January 23, 2008


Outdated versions (now illegal) used a .38 caliber pistol cartridge and were called "Coyote Getters."

Yeah... that's fucked.
posted by papakwanz at 7:06 AM on January 23, 2008


Amazingly bad idea. Just...stunningly bad.
posted by aramaic at 7:10 AM on January 23, 2008 [3 favorites]


You really have to wonder about the people who think of stuff like this. I sort of wonder if they giggle and clap their hands when they think of a new way to kill animals and/or people.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:14 AM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


I am dumbfounded that there are people actually defending the use of these. Aramaic pretty much summed up my thoughts.
posted by TedW at 7:28 AM on January 23, 2008


You really have to wonder about the people who think of stuff like this. I sort of wonder if they giggle and clap their hands when they think of a new way to kill animals and/or people.

I'd guess they assure themselves that they are merely responding to a need in the market and that the consumer should be the final arbiter as to whether such a device is necessary. Just doing our job, y'know.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:41 AM on January 23, 2008


I'm surprised this dual-use device is actually legal, what with the Geneva Protocol about chemical weapons. But then the US is the world's largest arms dealer and never really pays attention to these rules.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:44 AM on January 23, 2008


Holy. Living. Fuck. This is possibly the worst idea ever. Do these things not fall under anti-landmine treaties? This seems like a pretty indiscriminate way to kill coyotes. Maybe they should try carpet bombing next time.
posted by GuyZero at 7:45 AM on January 23, 2008


I cannot believe the poison landmines turned out to be such a bad idea. DANG
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:46 AM on January 23, 2008 [5 favorites]


I don't think the US is a signatory to ANY anti-landmine treaties.
posted by edgeways at 7:56 AM on January 23, 2008


I'm shocked. I've never heard of this, but it sounds horrible.
posted by agregoli at 8:05 AM on January 23, 2008


To be fair, cyanide has been available for pest control on farms for ages. In the past, it was used in the form of cyanide-coated peanut pieces (or some similar food). One would scatter the poisoned bits in areas where rats or other such varmints congregated. They were never meant for use against larger predators, though

But, yeah, weaponized cyanide is quite an onerous escalation. One really has to think that the maker either did the numbers and had no problem with the percentages concerning non-intended casualties. That or they didn't bother running the numbers in order to claim ignorance when the lawsuits started coming in.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:13 AM on January 23, 2008


I thought it's illegal to set booby traps on your property. How is this any different?
posted by Doohickie at 8:20 AM on January 23, 2008


Mmm, almondy death!
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2008


I get the feeling I need to revisit my coyote trap. It looks like a pack of cigarettes, but, when you take one and light it, it blows your head off. Somebody just told me that coyotes don't smoke, and that people do, and so the trap might end up killing people. I responded, well, maybe it will just encourage them to quit smoking.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2008 [4 favorites]


This didn't strike me as strange, but then again, I spent four years in Montana.
posted by desjardins at 8:33 AM on January 23, 2008


Doohickie writes "I thought it's illegal to set booby traps on your property. How is this any different?"

It's the goverment setting the trap.
posted by Mitheral at 8:34 AM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


Those kids should never have been on my lawn in the first place.
posted by srboisvert at 8:34 AM on January 23, 2008 [2 favorites]


The collateral damage for Compound 1080 and M-44 getters used on public lands by ranchers or in support of ranching is pretty horrific, and the ranching lobby is the reason they haven't been banned. It's really hard to get politicians to do anything to piss off the ranchers out here in the West, no matter how good the idea.

There recently was an EPA petition to ban these devices, but good luck getting the current EPA to do anything about it.

Then again, millions of our federal tax dollars (6.1 million in 2006) pay to exterminate ~88,000 coyotes and many tens of thousands of other "nuisance animals" a year in the US via this agency alone, so it's not like we care a lot about wildlife when it gets in the way. You can read the numbers yourself here. Check out how many are killed via snares and aerial gunning especially.

I'm going to cringe here in the corner and wait for the inevitable herbivore vs. carnivore flameout.
posted by hackwolf at 8:34 AM on January 23, 2008 [5 favorites]


Yet another surprisingly inhumane, shortsighted and unappetizing way that farming meat is fucked up.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:49 AM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


Leaving aside the merits of these devices and the risk that they'll kill pets, I'm having a hard time understanding why they don't have big fricking warning signs on them so people don't, you know, pick them up. Did I miss the report about literate coyotes?
posted by schoolgirl report at 9:53 AM on January 23, 2008 [4 favorites]


This is fucking sick.
posted by fiercecupcake at 10:06 AM on January 23, 2008


What schoolgirl report said. And everyone else for that matter.
posted by artifarce at 10:38 AM on January 23, 2008


It's really hard to get politicians to do anything to piss off the ranchers out here in the West, no matter how good the idea.

Why? Why? How many of them are there, and how rich can they be in their dying industry? I never understand how such a small (granted, vocal and culturally symbolic) minority has such sway to wreck our public lands for pennies an acre.

Please to explain.
posted by gottabefunky at 10:51 AM on January 23, 2008


Wow, what an astonishingly stupid idea: let's use a highly toxic poison to protect our food supply. Even if there is virtually no chance of one thing touching the other, why even introduce the risk?

Not to mention the needlessly cruel death it causes unsuspecting animals who encounter it.

Eventually, I hope that we, as a people, can discover that there are a lot of good ways of doing things, that don't require something needing to die.
posted by quin at 11:01 AM on January 23, 2008


schoolgirl report said: Did I miss the report about literate coyotes?

See, this is what happens when *good* cartoons are taken off the air. People just don't know the facts of life. Coyotes are not only literate, some of them in fact, are Supa Geeeniuses.


As to the cyanide land mines of convulsing death: That's obscene. I can't even imagine how this could possibly have been given the "go" signal. What.the.hell?
posted by dejah420 at 11:21 AM on January 23, 2008


Leaving aside the merits of these devices and the risk that they'll kill pets, I'm having a hard time understanding why they don't have big fricking warning signs on them so people don't, you know, pick them up. Did I miss the report about literate coyotes?

Holy shit. I thought you must be exaggerating, but then I looked at the pictures. These things are completely unmarked. There's no indication whatsoever that they're dangerous. What the fuck? Make them orange and put a skull-and-crossbones on them, at least. This is just nuts.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:25 AM on January 23, 2008


the big problem with signs and colored stakes is that over time the signs blow away or are knocked down or blocked, and the colored stakes will fade or get covered with mud.

How many are just scattered with no regard to mark where they were, to check on in the future, or to remove. Letting them use signs will give them even less motivation to mark where they put them "because I just put a sign next to it". In 3 years, the un detonated trap will sit there, the sign long gone, the wildlife services personal having moved on to another location, and some poor hiker and their dog will find it.
posted by mrzarquon at 11:33 AM on January 23, 2008


I can't even imagine how this could possibly have been given the "go" signal.

These kind of baits and devices have been in use since the start of the 20th century, and probably earlier (can't remember exactly, don't have a source handy, so I won't offer an exact date). They're like the 1872 Mining Law - horribly bad ideas that have been grandfathered in to how land in the West is (mis)managed. They were originally used to extirpate wolves from the region, so it's a natural continuation for them to be used on coyotes.

Coyotes are damn smart. These devices are hidden the way they are or even made attractive to canids (including domestic dogs) with scent because coyotes are smarter about these things than most dogs or children under the age of 6. If you put a nice big surveyor stake next to every one, I doubt you'd get many coyotes. They've had a lot of practice and some intense selection pressure to help them learn.
posted by hackwolf at 11:51 AM on January 23, 2008


For fuck's sake! How can this be seen as anything other than outright terrorism?
posted by Naberius at 12:03 PM on January 23, 2008


Here is the bill Rep. Peter Defazio has introduced to ban the use of these devices. I'll be contacting my representatitive about this. You can find your rep here, where there is a box with a zip-code lookup in the upper left hand corner.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 12:21 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


Crap. Try here for the bill. The link wors for me, at least.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 12:25 PM on January 23, 2008


I find it (sickly) amusing how expensive measures will be taken to prevent predation losses on animals flocks, while the animals themselves are (sometimes) kept in deplorable conditions with in the end will causes more losses than predation ever would. I also like run-on sentences.
posted by ZaneJ. at 12:30 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


True men don't kill coyotes.
posted by First Post at 12:32 PM on January 23, 2008 [1 favorite]


Christ we are such a stupid species sometimes.

"Hey, predators are eating our poorly-guarded herbivores. What should we do?!?!?!"

"...Hm, I got an idea: POISON LANDMINES!!!!!! What can possibly go wrong?!??!?!"
posted by Avenger at 1:45 PM on January 23, 2008


What. The. Fuck.
posted by perilous at 6:26 PM on January 23, 2008


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