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| - While the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Bureau of Land Management had not approved new uses of M-44 devices on public lands as of this writing, an April 2026 agreement between the agencies effectively lifts a Biden-era ban on the devices. This opens the door for future use on BLM-managed lands.
In May 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration had lifted a ban on M-44 "cyanide bombs" used to kill animals on public lands.
According to the Bureau of Land Management, an M-44 device sprays a lethal dose of sodium cyanide into an animal's mouth when it bites the device, killing the animal within five minutes. The devices can be baited to attract specific animals.
The BLM announced a ban on the use of M-44 devices on its lands in
Claims that the Trump administration had lifted this ban spread across social media, where some users reacted with outrage. One Threads user wrote, "The Trump administration is going to use f***ing CYNAIDE bombs on animals??? in their homes??? to get rid of them???? I AM F***ING LIVID, this s*** cannot keep happening!!!"
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived) and X (archived). Snopes readers contacted us to verify whether it was true.
In short, it was true that the Trump administration lifted a Biden-era ban on the use of M-44 pesticide devices on some public lands.
The BLM announced a ban on the use of M-44 devices on lands it managed in
Essentially, in April 2026, the BLM signed a new memorandum of understanding with an agency under the U.S. Department of Agriculture that removed language from a previous edition of an agreement banning the use of M-44 devices on BLM-managed land. The April 2026 agreement instead allowed the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to receive and review applications for the use of M-44 devices on BLM-managed land (Section VII H), signaling an end to the outright ban.
Public Domain, a Substack blog that reports on U.S. environmental agencies and the public lands they manage, first reported the change. The advocacy organization Predator Defense reportedly obtained the agreement and shared it with the publication. A spokesperson for the DOI confirmed the authenticity of the April 2026 memorandum of understanding between the BLM and APHIS in an email to Snopes on May 19, 2026.
The spokesperson added that the April 2026 agreement identified M-44 devices as "tools that may be considered under existing law and environmental review."
The statement added:
The MOU does not itself authorize or expand use of M‑44s; any proposed application requires advance notification to BLM, compliance with NEPA and other statutes, and must conform to all laws and regulations.
Agreement lifts M-44 ban on BLM land
The BLM appeared to have added the "inactive" banner to the webpage about the ban on M-44 devices on its managed lands on May 19, 2026, more than a month after BLM and APHIS signed the new memorandum of understanding. Snopes contacted the BLM to confirm when it added the "inactive" banner to the webpage and awaits a reply.
Under the April 2026 agreement, BLM and APHIS Wildlife Services share wildlife damage management responsibilities. The latter agency operates under the USDA to manage conflicts with wildlife. That work includes killing or euthanizing wild animals that threaten people, attack livestock or otherwise cause damage.
The April 2026 memorandum of understanding laid the groundwork for the lifting of the 2024 M-44 ban.
When the BLM announced the ban on M-44 devices on its land in 2024, the active memorandum of understanding between the BLM and APHIS Wildlife Services included the sentence: "APHIS-WS shall not use M-44s that deliver sodium cyanide on any BLM-administered lands," (Page 5, Section VII H).
In the April 2026 version of that agreement, that sentence no longer appeared in an otherwise near-identical Section VII (H) (Page 5). Instead, the April 2026 memorandum said APHIS Wildlife Services would review applications for the use of M-44 devices with the BLM, effectively reopening the door for M-44 use on BLM-managed lands.
The battle to restrict sodium cyanide
Lawmakers and advocacy groups have long pushed for a nationwide ban on M-44 devices, which Predator Defense described in a May 2026 news release as "indiscriminate killers" that "cannot be used safely."
U.S. representatives and senators introduced "Canyon's Law" in both the House and Senate in 2025, which aimed to prohibit the use of M-44s at the federal level. The bills, which had not passed in either chamber of Congress as of this writing, are named after Canyon Mansfield, whose dog Kasey died in 2014 after being sprayed with sodium cyanide from a device. Mansfield, who was 14 years old at the time, suffered symptoms of cyanide poisoning for weeks. His family sued the U.S. government and settled in 2020, with the federal government admitting negligence.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which registers sodium cyanide and approves M-44 devices for use in the U.S, reevaluated its guidance on how government agencies can use the devices in 2019. In December of that year, the agency increased the distance M-44 devices must be placed from residences, public paths and roads, and the number of warning signs that must accompany each device.
Idaho, Oregon, California and Washington outright ban or restrict the use of sodium cyanide to poison animals within state lines, meaning the federal government's updated rules are unlikely to affect them.
APHIS numbers show M-44 can miss target animal
According to an APHIS Wildlife Services publication from 2019, the agency used an average of 27,629 sodium cyanide capsules per year between fiscal years 2011 and 2015.
The capsules APHIS used resulted in an average of 13,959 targeted "takes" and 362 non-targeted takes per year between FY11 and FY15 (Table 2, PDF Page 6). A targeted take, according to APHIS Wildlife Services, includes coyotes, red and gray foxes, and wild or feral dogs — animals that the EPA has decided can be killed using sodium cyanide (Page 1). A non-targeted take is any animal not on that list that APHIS Wildlife Services found died from sodium cyanide exposure in an area where the agency used the substance.
The agency also tracked unknown takes, where the sodium cyanide capsule went off but the agency did not recover a carcass. On average, the agency registered 9,757 unknown takes per year between FY11 and FY15.
According to APHIS Wildlife Services' own data, it killed an average of 24,078 animals (targeted, non-targeted and unknown) using sodium cyanide capsules per year between fiscal years 2011 and 2015.
In sum, while APHIS Wildlife Services and the BLM had yet to approve new uses of M-44 devices on public lands as of this writing, the agreement between the agencies effectively lifted an outright ban the BLM imposed during the Biden administration. This opens the door for future use on BLM-managed lands.
For further reading, Snopes previously investigated whether the Trump administration would evict bison from federal lands.
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