Predator poison killing central Idaho dogs

13 pets killed in a residential area of Salmon, Idaho by compound 1080.

Another version of the same article in the Post Register says that these poisonings may be linked to several wolf poisonings in the area from years past.

Predator poison killing central Idaho dogs.
Associated Press in the Idaho Statesman

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Update by Ralph Maughan

We don’t know who or why the current Salmon, Idaho poisoner is setting out extremely dangerous 1080 poison and killing local dogs. However, Salmon, Idaho and  the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area went through the same thing several years ago. Then the target clearly was wolves, but, not surprisingly, what got killed then were local dogs.  One wolf was successfully poisoned by 1080 back then, a member of the Buffalo Ridge wolf pack.

1080 and other predator poisons should be banned before more pets die and someone is killed. Here is a video telling of people and dogs who have died or almost died.

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Currently, it does look like someone is trying for wolves in Northern Idaho. Dog dies after eating sausage on trail near Clark Fork. By KREM.com. This time the poison is the classic — strychnine.

Generalized poisons such as 1080 and sodium cyanide for m-44 “coyote getters” should no longer be produced.

36 thoughts on “Predator poison killing central Idaho dogs

  1. This is really, really alarming.
    It very likely means that someone in the Good Old Boy network in Idaho may have access to 1080.

  2. It’s too bad the main article is in the Idaho Falls Post Register because there are more details.

    1080 is a terrifying poison — colorless, odorless and tastless. It is lethal in small doses and causes an agonizing death.

    Folks have been trying to get its manufacture and use in killing coyotes and other unpopular animals banned for years.

    It would only seem to be a matter of time until a terrorist, foreign or domestic, puts some on food in a grocery store or a city water supply.

    It is amazing how some things get classified as terrorist weapons of destruction while others by means of political influence are left wide open for lethal use.

    1. I remember the case as it was a very big deal at the time.

      One other thing that people need to realize is that some of the poisons used by these terrorists are so deadly that they may kill people who come into contact with the animals if they aren’t careful.

      Temik is deadly enough that if a dog that has eaten some later licks a kid it could kill or severely injure them as well. I am not sure about 1080 but it has been known to kill dogs that have eaten what another dog has thrown up.

    2. Ken, it amazes me how some have a huge amount of hatred for wolves willing to risk jail time and pay fines just to kill a few wolves.

  3. And Wildlife Services has access to 1080. This is really asking for trouble – Given that many of their agents” are completely One with the livestock industry and extreme wolf haters.

    In the Idaho Falls paper, Wildlife Services was already quoted denying they had anything to do with what is essentially a terrorist-style weapon being used in Salmon, Idaho.

    1. It is my understanding that the 1080 currently in use on sheep and goat collars has a dye in it that causes whatever bit it to turn yellow.

  4. Are pets legally defined as personally property in Idaho, i.e. if the offender is caught can they also face civil charges from pet owners? I hope so because any criminal charges aren’t likely to be enough.

  5. speaking from the Salmon “Killing Fields”, I would add about civil court – what about property values? stress? loss of use of gardens etc. Now some folks are sending their pets and kids out-of-state and out of harm’s way.

  6. Could be the Clark Fk. poisoning was a copy-cat. I wonder if any of the poisonings were in grazing allotments?

  7. Taz Alago,

    The Salmon, Idaho poisonings have all been inside the town in a 13 block area. Dogs were the direct target.

    The Clark Fk. poisoning was on a trail in what I think is a woods or backcountry area.

  8. KT
    If you read the robinson book “Predatory Bureaucracy, you will find Young as an up and coming US biological survey employee who felt it was his calling to exterminate predators like wolves and bears. He moved up the ranks by doing just that- and poisoning was his specialty. If he isn’t the epitome of evil no one is!

  9. And the wolf haters say part of why they hate them is they are a threat to dogs. Anyone else see the irony in this?

  10. Those same wolf haters wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice their own dogs if the poison they put out killed a few wolves.

    1. Jon,

      This really takes the cake!! You don’t know anything about hunting but you sound off all the time.

      Now you come up with probably the most stupid line that you have uttered!!

      Wow!! You don’t know a damn thing about people that have dogs either. Amazing!!

    2. I have to say, I know a lot of people on both sides of this issue, and I have never met one that would be willing to sacrifice their dogs to kill wolves…

      Your getting out there a bit Jon, you letting you emotion overcome common sense…

    3. Layton, are you going to deny that wolf haters haven’t put poison out to kill wolves on purpose, but it instead killed people’s dogs? these wolf haters know very well that dogs might die from the poison, but they do it anyways. It shows they have no compassion for people’s dogs being poisoned which is what is going to happen. And what I said about wolf haters sacrificing dogs in order to kill wolves is very much real and 100% true.

    4. Jon,

      Here we go again, could you please provide some type of information that can be verified to back up your claim of being 100% true? that anti wolf people are willing to sacrifice their dogs!

  11. sb, use your noggin. Dogs are being killed by poison intended for wolves. Wolf haters know very well that dogs could eat the poison and die from it and they obviously don’t care about that because they are still doing it.

    1. Jon,

      You specifically stated “Wolf haters are willing to sacrifice their dogs” if they could kill wolves.

      There has been several incidents over many years even before the wolves were reintroduced that resulted in accidental poisoning of pets or unintended wildlife being killed.

      I am concerned where they got the 1080, if they in fact have, as it is a regulated poison.

      As I have not read a full report on this situation, and only a couple of newspaper articles, which I don’t quite have the faith in that you seem to…I would like to see official investigation documentation..

      I do agree with Ralph and others, that these poisons need to be taken off the market….1080 and the M44 are very dangerous substances..and could be used in many other ways to harm humans, when I was in the Gulf during my military service, we did actually run into some of this stuff and it is not good..someone with the right type of resources could in fact use this as a weapon of mass destruction..

    2. I need to point out, that the Salmon, Idaho poisonings, which are the real scary ones, clearly and obviously have local dogs as the target.

    3. Ralph,

      I have read many stories over the years, of dogs being the target of the poisoning in many different states, when I lived in WA we had a situation that took quite a long time to get stopped, if I remember right, over 50 dogs were killed as well as neighborhood cats, because some warped individual decided he didn’t like cats and dogs in his neighborhood…

  12. sb, the facts speak for themselves.

    Wolf haters are putting poison out intended for wolves

    Dogs are eating the poison and dying

    Wolf haters know that dogs as well as other animals might eat the poison and die from it

    They clearly don’t care about people’s dogs dying because if they did, they wouldn’t put poison out just to kill a few wolves because they hate them for whatever reason in the first place. Dogs are being killed by the poison wolf haters put out intended for wolves. Those are the simple facts. Forgive me if I speak the truth.

    1. You speak, what you assume to be the truth, 1080 actually gets used for many other species of predators as well..

      Ralph, could you intercede here, this is getting ridiculous…

  13. Wolf “haters” are not necessarily hunters. It could any idiot out there. And, said person could probably care less what canid he/she kills (or any other living creatures) Anyone using the infamous 1080, or strychnine knows that they putting out a highly toxic chemical that is an indiscriminate killer.

  14. Poison, trapping – all indiscriminate. Wildlife Services still uses M44 throughout the West (and elsewhere).

  15. I hope no one takes offense to this, but there are some very, very sick people in Idaho. I’ve been calling around realtors looking at places in that state, and half of the “realtors” I’ve spoken with have gone on rants about “enemies all around us”, and “the damn libs”. Two realtors asked if I wanted to buy guns. A couple times I politely said I was from Chicago, and I was then lectured about U.N. conspiracies and Obama takeovers. One realtor even bashed wolves. Not once did I mention politics. Two of the realtors bashed Native Americans(for getting DSL before their town did, etc) and one even stopped short of using the “N” word in a conversation. I think I heard the word “welfare” at least a dozen times in one call.

    If this is the kind of behavior I receive when soliciting business from supposedly respected realtors, I wonder what the people who *aren’t* trying to sell you something act like. Unbelievable.

    After my phone calls I’m not surprised by these poison stories.

    Someone out in Idaho isn’t doing their job when it comes to enforcing reckless behavior.

  16. On the M-44 issue, potatoes are not the only Idaho export. They are manufactured in Pocatello Idaho at Wildlife Services supply depot.

    The preceding discussion is all over the place. Here are some clarifying points coming from someone that was trained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Pesticide Investigations and Wildlife Kills, who has consulted with the BLM and FS under ESA for pesticide applications in areas with endangered and threatened species and their designated critical habitats, and not only whose two dogs were brutally murdered with Compound 1080, but also who watched them both die violently under vet care, who collected the specimens used to identify illegal poison, and who assisted the vet and her assistants in the necropsy and shipment of tissue and other samples to WSU-Pullman.

    Compound 1080, verified by the Washington State University Vet School Animal Diagnostic Disease Lab in Pullman and the North Dakota State University Diagnostic Lab, was used to kill at least three of the 13 or more dead dogs and possibly at least three cats in the City limits of Salmon. This is also part of the City of Salmon Police Chief’s press release. Before Compound 1080 was identified and verified, the diagnostic labs at Utah State University and Cal-Davis were stumped and WSU-U of Idaho had tested for more than 400 substances. So… it is an indisputable fact – Compound 1080 was used to kill pets in the City of Salmon from at least January 2010 through May 2010.

    The only legal use for Compound 1080 as labeled and restricted by the US EPA is for USDA APHIS Wildlife Services (“Worthless Services”) and for only in predator defense collars. Ken is correct, Wildlife Services’ 1080 includes a yellow dye pigment. However, it is very easy for a killer to take the highly lethal, odorless, tasteless, water-soluble poison from the two bladders on the collar and inject it into a small bit of hot dog or burger. Apparently, 1080 is so toxic that 1 teaspoon is reported enough to kill 100 adult humans. It was also listed as one of the poisons being tested for warfare and terrorism in Iraq by the Saddam Husein regime.

    How this might relate to wolves is that there are at least 5 unsolved, confirmed Compound 1080 wolf killings on the Salmon-Challis National Forest and SNRA circa 2000. These 1080 ESA violations were verified by USFWS and their Ashland Oregon Wildlife Forensic Lab. The SCNF wolf killings were basically one drainage over from Salmon in the Panther Creek drainage against the Moyer Basin wolf pack. The SNRA wolf poisoning was beyond Hailey in Fairfield, Idaho.

    In any case, wolf hater or lover, the wolf killings from circa 2000 violated the Endangered Species Act as well as FIFRA – Fungicide, Insecticide, and Rodenticide Act – or EPA pesticide labeling. The current dog killings with 1080 are also a Federal crime as they violate FIFRA since no one except Wildlife Services can use 1080 and their use is solely restricted to predator defense collars.

    I agree with Mike on at least one point – wolf hating, killing, and poisoning (now proposed baiting and trapping) has made some people crazed with killing at any cost. They have actually been “baited and poisoned” by some people’s political rhetoric against the Federal government, and wolves in particular. With this hatred and love of killing, life has become cheap in Idaho, and certainly dangerous for pets and children.

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