Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Toxicant ejectors have been important in coyote control since the late 1930s when the coyote getter (CG) was introduced into Governmental wildlife damage management programs in the western United States. The CG was replaced during 1968-1970 by the similar but safer, spring-activated M-44 device that remains in use today. Significant aspects of this history include the private development and manufacture of the CG, first called the Humane Fur Getter, in the 1930s; adoption of the CG by governmental and private predator hunters; technical performance problems with CGs (and later M-44s) and their cyanide cartridges and capsules; governmental efforts to resolve these problems; development of competing toxicant ejector models, and evaluations of them compared to the CG; human injuries from CG accidents, leading to development and adoption of the safer M-44 ejector; the 1972 ban on sodium cyanide (NaCN) and other predacides; resumption of NaCN use in M-44s experimentally in 1974, followed by EPA registration in 1975; evaluation of alternate toxicants compared to NaCN; and the many minor but collectively important changes that have resulted in today’s improved M-44. The invention and technical evolution of CG and M-44 devices is described chronologically, with emphasis on the development, manufacture, and use of these devices in Federal/cooperative animal damage control programs.