Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Wildlife Services use poisons to kill coyotes, but protected wildlife can also fall victim. Take action today to end the use of Compound 1080 and other deadly poisons.

She had traveled to four states and logged more than 1,000 miles from her home in Montana.  But a female wolf from the Mill Creek pack (known as 314F), met a horrific fate in Colorado—illegally poisoned by the deadly Compound 1080.

Take action now! Urge the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide—deadly toxins that can kill protected wildlife.

Compound 1080—so dangerous, it is classified as a chemical weapon in several countries—is now legally used by the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services to kill coyotes in nine states.

Compound 1080 and other deadly toxins don’t always reach their intended victims. Sodium cyanide—another highly toxic poison—kills hundreds of non-target animals each year. Protected wolves, rare swift foxes and even hundreds of pet dogs have been killed by baited traps that are left unattended.

EPA is currently deciding whether to continue to allow the use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide by Wildlife Services to kill native wildlife. And we need your help to ban these deadly chemicals.

Act now! Urge federal officials to ban the use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide to kill wildlife—and prevent the poisoning of animals struggling to survive.

Non-lethal alternatives like improved fencing, guard animals, range riders and other methods can safely and effectively keep predators away from domestic animals—without the use of deadly poisons.

It’s too late for 314F. But with your help, we can fight to end the use of the use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide—and prevent the poisoning of wildlife struggling to survive.

Act now to end the use of Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide—a terrible way for wildlife to die.

A “newer generation” of incredibly toxic rat poisons have been responsible for killing hundreds of owls and other wildlife in the United States, Canada and Europe, according to a host of studies on both continents. These pesticides can kill with just one dose, but death isn’t swift or clean – the animals may “stagger about, dazed but not yet dead,” for days, writes reporter Robert McClure in an in-depth series of articles written for Environmental Health News and Investigate West.

The poisons prevent blood from clotting, causing the targeted rodents – and any other animals that feed upon them – to slowly bleed to death.

The poisons prevent blood from clotting, causing the targeted rodents – and any other animals that feed upon them – to slowly bleed to death. Wildlife ranging from coyotes to foxes, from owls to kestrels, and even songbirds, squirrels and deer, have been impacted by careless applications of these poisons. And humans are impacted as well – McClure reports that more than 10,000 kids get hold of these “super-toxic rat poisons” every year, sending many to the emergency room with dangerous bleeding or other symptoms. Some new restrictions on sales and applications of these poisons are scheduled to come on line next year.

Prairie Dog

But one poison of this type, known as Rozol, is currently approved to kill wild prairie dogs. Rozol also threatens the many wildlife species that depend on prairie dogs, including already endangered black-footed ferrets, swift foxes, owls, eagles and other raptors. Defenders has gone to court to persuade the Environmental Protection Agency to bar use of Rozol on prairie dogs. And this year, Defenders and other organizations helped save a large prairie dog colony in Wyoming from poisoning by relocating them to a protected area within Thunder Basin National Grassland.

Pesticides kill. That’s what they’re designed to do.

But what they kill is often a contentious matter. The agricultural pests that bug farmers are usually the prime target, but deadly chemicals can end up widely distributed throughout the environment. Along the Pacific Coast, pesticides are commonly washed into rivers where they have been shown to kill sensitive aquatic life. We’re not just talking about the little micro-organisms either. Big fish like salmon and steelhead are susceptible as well, which is why the Defenders legal team is stepping in.

Chinook salmon. Photo courtesy of USGS.

In 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined that several pesticides known as organophosphates were negatively impacting Pacific salmon and steelhead. Three common pesticides in particular (chlorpyrifos, diazinon, and malathion) can kill salmon outright in addition to disrupting spawning migrations, eliminating important prey species, and making the fish more susceptible to disease. These pesticides have been found in every single water basin that was tested on the West Coast, sometimes at concentrations 1000 times higher than acceptable levels established by the government.

The NMFS “biological opinion” submitted to the EPA identified several steps to keep these compounds out of rivers where they can cause harm to salmon and steelhead habitat. Recommendations included creating a buffer of non-crop vegetation between salmon streams and farmland, and keeping pesticide applications at a safe distance from those waters. Unfortunately, the federal scientists’ biological opinion was largely ignored. Instead, EPA tried to implement weaker protections, but even those minimal safeguards were rejected by the pesticide industry. Even in the face of expert reports and declining salmon populations, major chemical manufacturers like Dow AgroSciences, Makhteshim-Agan North America and Cheminova continue to claim their products do not jeopardize fisheries.

As a result, Defenders and a coalition of conservation and fishing groups are suing EPA to force them to enact the proper safeguards needed to protect imperiled salmon and steelhead fisheries along the Pacific coast. It’s time to stand up to the pesticide producers and polluters who are putting our aquatic ecosystems at risk.

Read the full press release here and check out our fact sheet to learn more about threats to salmon nationwide.

Did you hear that?

That’s the sound of our nation’s aquatic species breathing a collective sigh of relief. (Click here to read our press release).

After nearly 30 years and lots of wrangling, the Environmental Protection Agency has finally agreed to update its effluent guidelines that set standards for wastewater released from coal-fired power plants. The current standards, established back in 1982, set no limits for toxic metals, which have been shown to cause developmental abnormalities and even death in myriad fish and amphibian species.

Bald eagles sit atop aquatic food chains that are being poisoned by toxic pollution from coal plants. Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Deadly pollutants like arsenic, mercury and lead steadily accumulate up the food chain in plants, insects, fish, birds and even small mammals that make up riverine food chains. That means rockfish, osprey and red foxes were all at great risk from coal ash—the dirty byproduct of burning coal that sits in sludge ponds and leaks into our waterways.

EPA is issuing the new guidelines after environmental groups threatened legal action. Defenders of Wildlife and Sierra Club, with help from their attorneys at Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project, negotiated with EPA to issue new rules by July 2012 that, for the first time, will establish limits on the toxic metals released from coal plants. This action is a major step forward in protecting aquatic species and ensures that we have cleaner water for humans and wildlife long into the future.

Defenders attorney Adam Kron was instrumental in fighting for the tougher effluent standards and continues to hold EPA accountable for enforcing Clean Water Act protections.

“Coal ash polluters have gotten a free pass for too long. For decades, they have been allowed to dump heavy metals and other toxins into our rivers and creeks, poisoning native fish and the wildlife that rely on fish and other aquatic species as a food source. After almost thirty years, EPA has finally taken a decisive step toward protecting aquatic species, our local waters, and our way of life by more fully regulating coal ash pollutants and keeping them out of our waterways.”

EPA has finally taken a decisive step toward protecting aquatic species, our local waters, and our way of life by more fully regulating coal ash pollutants and keeping them out of our waterways.

Keep up the good work, Adam, and thanks for safeguarding aquatic ecosystems and the wildlife that depend on them. Read more about what Defenders is doing here.

A horrific, excruciating death awaits wolves, swift foxes or any wild animal that comes in contact with deadly sodium cyanide or Compound 1080.

Did you know that each year the Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services kills more than 10,000 wild animals with highly toxic sodium cyanide and sodium monofluoroacetate (known as Compound 1080)?

You can help stop the use of these toxic chemicals on our wildlife. Act now to urge the Environmental Protection Agency to ban these deadly poisons.

These poisons don’t just threaten their intended targets. They can also poison any threatened or endangered species, people or pets that happen to come into contact with them.

Domesticated dogs and a whole host of other non-target species, including kit foxes, ringtails, javelinas, and swift foxes have been killed by sodium cyanide used in M-44 trigger traps.  M-44s have also killed California condors and wolves.

For the lucky few, death comes within minutes—but far too often, it’s a slow and agonizing spiral that can take hours.

Take action today. Send a message to EPA and urge them to end the use of these terrible poisons for killing wildlife.

It’s an awful way to die. The last moments of life are cursed with dizziness, convulsions or excruciating pain. For the lucky few, death comes within minutes—but far too often, it’s a slow and agonizing spiral that can take hours.

Take action now. Urge EPA officials to end the use of these deadly poisons on our wildlife and help us reach our goal of sending 50,000 messages.

Coal ash: impacts on wildlife

Aerial view of December 2008 coal ash spill in Tennessee

America’s coal plants produce 130 million tons of waste every year from more than 450 coal plants across the country. Most of that waste sits in landfills and sludge ponds where it slowly seeps into our waterways, depositing toxic pollutants that can persist for a century or more. According to the EPA, coal waste can leach toxic pollutants like selenium, lead and arsenic at levels that wreak havoc on aquatic ecosystems and wildlife.

Toxic pollutants in coal waste affect the entire web of life in an ecosystem as they accumulate up the food chain. Trace amounts are taken up by plants and insects from the water, fish eat the insects and vegetation, and finally larger animals feed off those fish. These large predators—whether osprey, foxes or even humans—can consume concentrated doses of these toxins by eating contaminated fish, frogs or other species. Accumulated toxins like selenium have been shown to cause deformities, reproductive failure and even death in many aquatic species. Continue Reading