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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2018)
NEWS B Y M I C H A E L TO B I N PETITION SEEKS OREGON BAN ON ‘CYANIDE BOMBS’ M-44s have led to several high profile poisonings of humans and pets A new petition is aiming to ban deadly M-44 anti- predator devices in the state of Oregon. M-44s use sodium cyanide, which smells of bitter almonds and is found naturally in apple seeds; however, its use in M-44s has not only killed predators but has severely injured several humans and their pets instead of the coyotes they target. Brooks Fahy is the organizer of the petition and the director of Predator Defense, an organization that seeks among other goals to ban M-44s. Although six rural Or- egon counties have stopped using the devices, the peti- tion asks Oregon’s director of federal Wildlife Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), to impose a statewide ban on the device and remove those currently in use. Despite its intended use, M-44s have been involved in several high-profile incidents that have injured humans. The most widely known incident was in March 2017 when Canyon Mansfield, a boy in Pocatello, Idaho, was exposed to the poison inside the device, and his dog Kasey was killed in front of him. The device was manufactured eight miles away from Canyon’s home. • Jackman Wilson, the now- former editorial page editor at The Register-Guard, penned a farewell column to run his last day on the job earlier this month. He’d worked there three decades. Sadly, the new GateHouse-owned version of the RG wouldn’t run it. But that’s what social media is for, isn’t it? Wilson’s goodbye has exploded all over Facebook, shared by the likes of former Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy. Ever the gentleman, Wilson laments the hollowing out of the RG’s opinion pages — GateHouse has eliminated the Sunday Commen- tary section and cut daily opinion pages by half — but avoids bitterness about the collapse of newspapers. Our favorite line: “I plan to take a break, and then find some other kind of work to do. Not newspapers. Maybe whale oil.” • Speaking of the RG, word from the newsroom continues to be about staff and pay cuts. A hiring freeze is rumored, meaning many In August 2017, just five months after the Pocatello in- cident, Fahy co-signed a petition asking the U.S. Environ- mental Protection Agency to ban the use of M-44s in the lower 48 states. According to Predator Defense’s website, the devices are used in 14 states as of March 2018. Fahy said that he heard nothing back from the EPA. The new petition, which was launched Thursday, Sept. 13, carries the names of almost 100 individuals and or- ganizations — including victims and survivors of M-44 detonations, such as the Mansfield family — as well as veterinarians and physicians, scientists, law enforcement officials, residents of Pocatello and other parties interested in environmental issues. One signator particularly stands out. Jim Robertson, president of the company that manufactured the device’s spring, did not know the intended purpose of his product. After learning about M-44s, he stopped producing the spring and now opposes the devices. The petition contains a chronology of M-44-related poisonings of pets and humans going back to April 1990. From 2000 to 2016, 4,621 animals have been killed in Or- egon alone. According to the petition, the actual number people departing the paper won’t be replaced. Besides editorial page editor Jackman Wilson, recent departures include former senior editor Christian Wihtol and former columnist Bob Welch, both of whom had been working with Wilson in the editorial section; photographer Brian Davies, reporter Saul Hub- bard and team editor Ed Russo. Meanwhile, GateHouse has told RG freelancers to sign new contracts cutting their pay and giving Gate- House the right to publish their stories anywhere in the company’s national chain without extra pay. • A herd of perhaps 80 to 90 elk has become the talk of the Alvadore and Franklin Road area north of Eugene, south of Junc- tion City. One farmer showed us a photo on her cell of a row of the majestic animals lined up to swim in her pond. We wonder what would happen if 80 elk decided to mosey down the runway at the Eugene Airport? Unlikely, as they’d find no food, drink or hiding places there — and TSA would try to pat them down. of animals killed, such as birds or pets or livestock, may be higher due to a lack of accurate record keeping from USDA-APHIS. This petition isn’t Fahy’s first attempt to ban the use of M-44s. He has worked with U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio for almost 30 years trying to ban the devices. “Part of my life’s work is dismantlling this federal agency and this device,” Fahy says of Wildlife Services, which implements the M-44s. Fahy says he come close in 1998, and through an ap- propriations amendment introduced by DeFazio the agen- cy was defunded for 24 hours until a technicality in the language was discovered. The petition doesn’t just include a chronology; it also contains the death certificate of Dennis Slaugh, a heavy equipment operator from Utah who was a victim of an M-44 detonation. Slaugh later died from a heart attack at the age of 75, and his death certificate listed “exposure to cyanide from M-44” as a condition contributing to his death in February 2018. As part of Fahy’s efforts to rally support around the ban of M-44s, he is also working with DeFazio to organize a screen- ing for the U.S. House of Representatives of Lethal Control, a film made about the Pocatello incident. Jamie Drysdale, a graduate student, produced the film that retells Canyon’s story and interviews Dennis Slaugh before his death. “It is not a question of if the use of M-44 cyanide bombs will cause the death of a human — it is a ques- tion of when,” DeFazio says in a statement. “These cruel poisons have already led to countless deaths of innocent animals and injuries to humans. The Oregon taxpayer must stop footing the bill for these expensive, inhumane, and unnecessary methods of so-called ‘predator control.’ I urge Governor Brown to ban the use of these extreme devices in Oregon as soon as possible.” ▪ More information about M-44s can be found at predatordefense.org. • On Sept. 4, the 9th Circuit Court found that a camping ban in Boise, Idaho, could violate Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual pun- ishment if homeless people have no other choice but to camp. In Eugene, the city tells us the ruling doesn’t affect current practices for reasons including that in Boise it’s a misdemeanor while in Eugene it’s a violation leading to fines of up to $200. The first question we have is: How many unhoused people have $200 for a fine? The city also cites a number of programs such as car camping, dawn-to-dusk and transitional housing such as SquareOne Villag- es. Homeless advocates in Boise back in 2015 actually looked to Eugene for ideas. We also applaud Eugene and Lane County for their work, but it’s far from done and this ruling should be a reminder that some of the tactics cities such as Eugene use to get rid of the homeless (downtown dog ban anyone?) are in fact cruel. See more on responses to the home- less ruling as well as the latest on white supremacist Jacob Laskey at eugeneweekly.com. • Rep. Peter DeFazio isn’t just campaigning for his own con- gressional seat. He’s looking to flip Congress from Red to Blue in other states, too. DeFaz recently sent out an email blast saying, “I also want to win back the U.S. House of Representatives so a Democratic majority can hold the Trump administration account- able.” To that end, his Eugene field office will run phone banks to help elect Democratic House candidates across the nation running in congressional districts historically held by Republicans that DeFazio believes can be won in November. One of the first candidates you can help DeFazio support is Katie Hill in CA-25. The daughter of a police officer, Hill, a registered nurse, is the executive director of the largest homeless service organization in California, according to DeFazio’s campaign. You can sign up to volunteer at defazioforcongress.org/volunteer or drop by the new field office at 222 E. 11th Avenue. Interested community members can contact 541-515-6192. SLANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHA SING NOTES COMPILED BY THE E W EDITORIAL BOARD. HEARD ANY GOOD RUMORS LATELY? CONTAC T EDITOR@EUGENE WEEKLY.COM 10 September 13, 2018 • eugeneweekly.com
