The Trump administration has quietly cleared the way for lethal cyanide devices to return to hundreds of millions of acres of American public land, reviving a practice that has killed endangered wildlife, family pets, and nearly killed a child.
In April 2026, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the USDA's Wildlife Services division signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) stripping out the explicit prohibition on M-44 sodium cyanide ejectors that had stood since 2023. The change went unnoticed until investigative outlet Public Domain obtained and published the internal document on 6 May 2026, triggering immediate alarm from wildlife advocates, conservation organisations, and public safety groups nationwide.
