The US government is to suspend the use of so-called cyanide bombs to kill wild animals on public lands in Colorado, as well as plans to kill dozens of mountain lions and black bears there, federal officials and conservationists said on Monday.
The legal agreement was struck between Wildlife Services, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture charged with killing so-called nuisance animals like coyotes, and conservation groups.
The deal was the second of its kind in less than a week and came as controversy mounted about the agency’s use of M44s, which critics term “cyanide bombs.”
PET KILLERS
The spring-loaded devices emit sodium cyanide and are blamed for accidentally killing pet dogs in Idaho, Wyoming and elsewhere.
Center for Biological Diversity attorney Colleen Adkins on Monday said the aim of lawsuits filed by activists in western US states against Wildlife Services was “to combat cruel treatment of wildlife.”
A Wildlife Services spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
The Colorado agreement stems from a lawsuit filed in April in US District Court in Denver by the Center for Biological Diversity and others.
The groups alleged that Wildlife Services violated federal law by failing to fully assess the potential impact of the killing of cougars and bears in Colorado on other native wildlife, like protected Canada lynx.
Federal officials also had planned to shoot as many as 45 mountain lions and 75 bears in western Colorado over three years in a move to fight the decline of mule deer favored by hunters.
Under terms of the Colorado deal, Wildlife Services are to assess the likely consequences of its predator-control activities on other wildlife and the environment by August next year and suspend the use of M44s on public lands in the state, court documents showed.
Federal officials are also to suspend plans to kill cougars or bears there to boost deer numbers, court documents said.
CALIFORNIA
On Wednesday last week, a US judge approved a settlement between Wildlife Services and environmental activists tied to a lawsuit they filed in California that similarly alleged the US agency had failed to conduct a thorough environmental analysis of its killing of wild animals in Northern California.
Under that accord, Wildlife Services suspended for at least six years its practice of gunning down coyotes from helicopters and airplanes, and using traps to kill creatures in wilderness areas in 16 northern California counties.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS