A female wolf, left, and male wolf roam the tundra near The Meadowbank Gold Mine in Nunavut on March 25, 2009. Health Canada says it will completely ban strychnine after completing public consultations on use of the powerful poison.NATHAN DENETTE/The Canadian Press
Ottawa has banned the use of strychnine after animal welfare groups complained the poison has led to the deaths of pet dogs and many other non-target birds and animals, including golden eagles and grizzly bears.
Animal advocates welcomed the ban, which was announced Thursday after a consultation by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency.
They said they had presented evidence that the toxin can lead to cruel and excruciating deaths in targeted animals such as coyotes, and the indiscriminate killing of other animals in the vicinity of the poison. Some pet dogs have died after eating meat laced with strychnine.
Last year in Trail, B.C., the RCMP warned people to keep their pets indoors after Sugar, a golden retriever, and Hank, a neighbouring border collie, died suddenly after going for a walk. Strychnine was found in Hank’s system and police believed it may have been used to bait coyotes.
Kaitlyn Mitchell, director of legal advocacy with Animal Justice, said: “Strychnine is among the most gruesome poisons in existence. We are thrilled that animals will no longer endure the agony of strychnine poisoning on the Canadian landscape.”
Hannah Barron, conservation director with Wolf Awareness, also welcomed the ban.
“Strychnine not only kills the intended wolves, coyotes, black bears and skunks. It also kills countless other animals unintentionally, including golden eagles, lynx, ravens, grizzly bears and companion dogs, to name a few,” she said.
But she expressed disappointment that Health Canada is allowing the continued use of Compound 1080, also known as sodium monofluoroacetate, which is used to kill wolves, black bears and coyotes. It is only registered for use in Alberta.
She said Compound 1080 can lead to cruel deaths in wolves, sometimes lasting days.
Wolf researcher Sadie Parr said “much of the rationale for ending use of 1080 is included in the decision to end strychnine.”
She said evidence that Compound 1080 is also killing non-target animals is harder to gather “because the victims are more dispersed on the landscape due to a longer delay in the symptoms. So poisoned carcasses can be kilometres away, never found, but fed on by other scavengers.”
Health Canada said in a statement that strychnine and sodium monofluoroacetate were only authorized for limited use as predacides in Alberta. It said additional risk-reduction measures need to be put in place for Compound 1080′s continued use, including updated reporting requirements.
“After an in-depth scientific review, Health Canada is cancelling all uses of strychnine, as risks to non-target animals are not acceptable when used according to the current conditions of registration, or when additional mitigation is considered,” said spokesman André Gagnon.
“Health Canada recognizes that Canadians are concerned about the use of pesticides to control large vertebrate predators and the unintended effects on non-target animals.”
Strychnine is banned in many other countries, including Britain, and Canadian provinces except Alberta no longer use it.
Alberta had asked Ottawa, which regulates the poison’s use, for permission to continue using it.
The province has used the toxin to kill wolves threatening the endangered caribou population. Baited sites are supposed to be checked and carcasses disposed of through incineration or burying them in a deep pit.
An incident report recorded by Health Canada showed that in 2018 a single poisoned wolf resulted in the death of at least one grizzly bear, a great grey owl, a lynx, eight ravens, two coyotes and five foxes.
Kelly Butler, wildlife campaign manager at Humane Society International Canada, said banning strychnine is “an important action that will prevent the prolonged, horrific, and needless deaths of so many animals.”
“We are thrilled that the federal government has taken this step toward improving welfare outcomes for wild animals and removing poisons from Canada’s ecosystems, and we hope that they will continue to evaluate other poisons still in use,” she said.
Ms. Barron at Wolf Awareness said Canada should also ban the use of neck snares to kill wolves, saying that they can take hours or even days to kill a wolf. A number of jurisdictions, including Wales, have banned the use of snares, and Scotland has indicated it plans to outlaw their use this year.