Paleonet: A deadly field work threat

[Theropod]

The following story appeared in the Jan 18 edition of the  Salt Lake 
Tribune. Sometimes older news stories become unavailable on-line, so I 
am posting a copy of the story within this email because of the hazard 
to those working in the field. A photo of the cyanide explosive is in 
the on-line version of the story. The incident occurred in the area near 
Dinosaur National Monument, but the devices are used across the western US.

Dan Chure

**EPA investigates Utahn's poisoning - 4 years after device shot cyanide 
in his face* *
By Patty Henetz
The Salt Lake Tribune 
<mailto:phenetz at sltrib.com?subject=Salt%20Lake%20Tribune:%20EPA%20investigates%20Utahn%27s%20poisoning%20-%204%20years%20after%20device%20shot%20cyanide%20in%20his%20face> 

Article Last Updated: 01/18/2008 06:23:26 AM MST

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun an investigation into 
the poisoning four years ago of a Vernal man who touched what he thought 
was a survey stake, only to get a blast of sodium cyanide to his face 
and chest.

The cyanide device, called an M-44, is used by the federal government to 
kill predators. The poisoning has left Dennis Slaugh with severe health 
problems, his wife, Dorothy Slaugh, said Thursday. And it has reignited 
a campaign to ban all predator poisoning on federal lands.

EPA investigator Michael Burgin visited the Slaugh home Monday for a 
two-hour meeting, which Slaugh said she taped with Burgin's knowledge. 
The special investigator was looking into why federal agencies did not 
follow up on the Slaughs' original reports, she said. Democratic Rep. 
Peter DeFazio of Oregon pushed for the investigation at the request of 
Predator Defense, a national wildlife advocacy group based in Eugene, Ore.

"He has been a really good ally trying to get these weapons banned 
permanently so no one will have to suffer the way my husband has 
suffered," Slaugh said of DeFazio.

Dennis Slaugh and his brother were riding all-terrain vehicles on U.S. 
Bureau of Land Management land in Cowboy Canyon near Bonanza in 2003 
when Slaugh noticed what he thought was a survey stake. He reached to 
brush it off and it fell over. When he picked it up, it exploded, 
sending a cloud of granules into his nose, mouth and eyes.
The M-44 device was spring-loaded to shoot poison into a predator's 
mouth. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Program is 
the only agency allowed to use the M-44 to poison coyotes and dogs to 
prevent livestock loss.

But when the Slaughs told the USDA and the BLM about their experience, 
the agencies denied responsibility and eventually informed them the 
statute of limitations on the family's claims had run out.

"We were just asking for compensation. We've got medical bills. They 
just flat denied everything," Dorothy Slaugh said.

On Monday, she said, Burgin told her that time on the claim would run 
out in May. Cyanide clings to iron in the blood system and slowly 
depletes the heart and other muscles of oxygen.  Dennis Slaugh, 65, has 
extremely high blood pressure, difficulty breathing, vomits almost daily 
and can no longer work as a Caterpillar D8 driver for Uintah County 
because he is too weak to climb up into the machine's rungs.

The couple, avid ATV riders and campers, have owned Mountain High Power 
Sports in Vernal for 35 years. "We're fine, we're OK. It's just taken a 
lot out of him," Dorothy Slaugh said.  Brooks Fahy, executive director 
of Predator Defense, said his organization started the push to ban all 
predator poisoning on federal lands in 1994, when a woman was poisoned 
while trying to resuscitate her dog after the animal bit an M-44 a USDA 
employee had set on her private property at the request of a tenant 
farmer. DeFazio has been an ally since then, Fahy said.

In late November, DeFazio prodded the EPA with a letter that Fahy said 
was "instrumental" in finally getting federal action on the Slaughs' 
claim. The congressman is sponsoring a bill in the House to ban all 
predator poisons