US temporarily bans use of cyanide predator traps in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - U.S. officials on Monday temporarily stopped the use of predator-killing cyanide traps in Idaho after one sickened a young boy and killed his dog last month after they checked it out.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced in a letter that it had halted all use of the traps on state, federal and private land in Idaho in response to a petition from 19 conservation and wildlife groups.

The spring-activated devices called M-44s look like water sprinkler heads and are embedded into in the ground but spray cyanide when triggered by animals attracted by bait smeared on the devices. They're used to kill coyotes and other livestock predators.

The 14-year-old Idaho boy was injured last month when he checked one out with his dog on federally-owned land near his house on the outskirts of the small city of Pocatello. His Labrador retriever dog died.

The groups that petitioned for the use of the devices to be stopped will be warned in advance if authorities decide to start using them again in Idaho, the Agriculture Department said.

"We take seriously the incident in Idaho, which involved the unintentional activation of a small spring-loaded device," said Jason Suckow, a regional director of the department's wildlife services division.

M-44s killed about 12,500 coyotes in 2016, mostly in Western U.S. states. According to the petition, the devices over the last 20 years have killed about 40 dogs and injured a handful of people.

"We are pleased with their response today, but our satisfaction is dimmed slightly that this ban might not be permanent," said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, which was one of the conservation groups to sign the petition.

Separately, other environmental groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in Montana claiming use of M-44s and another predator-killing poisonous device violate the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit seeks a ban across the United States.