On March 16, 2017, a 14-year-old boy’s dog is killed by an m-44 cyanide gun while walking near his home in Pocatello, Idaho. The boy is hospitalized after wiping off the orange powdery substance from his clothing onto the snow. Casey, his dog, wasn’t so lucky. There are countless cases like these reported every year.

This vile trap had been set by an organization that we know as Wildlife Services. It is funded by our tax dollars through the Department of Agriculture and their lobbyists. It has no oversight. This is a department that has killed more than 2.7 million wild animals including pets throughout the United States in just 2016 alone.

Cyanide m-44 poisoning is not the only tool in their tool bag. Dynamite is also used for blowing up beaver dams along with snares, traps and baiting. The pain and suffering of these animals goes unnoticed due to the secrecy of this organization.

The goal is to indiscriminately kill bears, lions, bobcats, coyotes, wolves, raccoons, beaver, foxes and any other wildlife that are anywhere close to agriculture. Planting these traps near neighborhoods and on private property is not uncommon.

The irony is that this agency spends millions to kill the very animals that hunters are being charged huge sums of money to hunt. It is a double hit to all wildlife. Wild animals in all categories are reaching points of extreme depletion if not ultimate extinction for some — not to mention the heartache and loss of our own personal pets. Are the real terrorists in our own backyards?

The Fish and Game is in a fog when it comes to the status of these animals — in fact they work hand in hand with Wildlife Services themselves. Money is the motivator.

I urge everyone to contact their local representatives and their state wildlife agencies to demand that they cut ties with this rogue agency known as Wildlife Services which are a tentacle of the Department of Agriculture.

- • •

Bonnie Brown is a resident of Benewah County.