These Cyanide Bombs Are Scattered Across the US - Don't Touch Them, Just Call the Cops
Part of the job of the federal government is to protect landowners, farmers and people in general from dangerous animals that may threaten livestock or even attack humans.
How the government protects Americans from these animals has been called into question after a family dog in Pocatello, Idaho, was killed by a device used by the Department of Agriculture, EastIdahoNews.com reported.
Canyon Mansfield, 14, was walking with his family’s dog when he noticed a pipe sticking out of the ground.
As soon as he touched the pipe, it released a deadly poison.
“I see this little pipe that looked like a sprinkler sticking out of the ground,” Mansfield told the outlet.
“I go over and touch it. Then it makes a pop sound and it spews orange gas everywhere.”
USDA must rethink cyanide bombs that injured boy, killed pets, lawmaker says https://t.co/nX713SqiC5 @CristinaCorbin pic.twitter.com/WE2sk6KmNd
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 21, 2017
What Mansfield touched was actually a device called an M-44, a cyanide distribution method the government uses in humanity’s endless battle with nature’s dangers.
While Mansfield was able to get the substance off of himself quickly, his yellow Labrador ended up dying from the poison because no one knew what it was right away.
The family was never notified that M-44 bombs had been placed near their property — something that goes far beyond the government being clueless.
This had the potential to kill people.
“We didn’t know anything about it. No neighborhood notifications, and our local authorities didn’t know anything about them,” Mark Mansfield, Canyon’s father, explained to CNN.
“The sheriff deputies who went up there didn’t even know what a cyanide bomb was.”
“We are devastated,” Canyon’s mother, Theresa Mansfield, told Fox News. “My dog died in less than two minutes. My son was rushed to the hospital covered in cyanide.”
The death of this family’s dog, and other similar deaths in other states, caused lawmakers to consider outlawing the use of M-44 devices by the Department of Agriculture, Fox News reported.
The USDA announced in August 2017 that it had banned the devices in Idaho and removed those that were in place.
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